CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(l\/lonographs) 


ICMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


m 


Canadian  Inatituta  for  Historical  Mivroraproductiona  /  Inatitut  carMdian  da  mieroraproductiona  hiatoriqins 


995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographlques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 

r/l      Coloured  covers  / 
' — '      Couverture  de  couleur 

I     I     Covers  damaged  / 

' — '      Couvenure  endommagee 

I     I      Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restauree  et/ou  pellicula 

I     I     Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

[^      Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  geographiques  en  couleur 

r^     Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 

Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

r^r     Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
—      Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

I     I      Bound  with  other  material  / 
' — '      Relie  avec  d'autres  documents 


D 
D 


D 


n 


Only  edition  available  / 
Seule  edition  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  Interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serr^e  peut 
causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de 
la  marge  interieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoratkHis  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have 
been  omitted  from  filming  /  II  se  peut  que  ceitaines 
pages  blanches  ajouttes  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  kxsque  cela  etait 
p<ssible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  6te  ftlmees. 


Additkmal  comments  / 
Commentaires  supplementaires; 


L'Institut  a  microfilme  le  meilleur  examplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
ete  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire  qui  sont  peut-etre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifications  dans  la  meth- 
ode  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 

I     I      Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I     I      Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommagees 

I     I      Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
' — '      Pages  restaurees  el/ou  pellKultes 


0 


Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
Pages  decolor^es.  tachetees  ou  piquees 


I     I      Pages  detached/ Pages  detachees 

[~7      Showthrough  /  Transparence 

I     I      Quality  of  print  varies  / 

' — '      Qualite  inegale  de  I'impression 

I     I      Includes  supplementary  material  / 
—      Comprend  du  materiel  supplementaire 

r^  Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image  /  Les  pages 
totalement  ou  partiellement  obscurcies  par  un 
feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure,  etc.,  ont  ete  filmees 
a  nouveau  de  fa^on  a  obtenir  la  meilleure 
image  possible. 

I  I  Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
'—J  discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the 
best  possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  variatiles  ou  des  decol- 
orations sont  filmees  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


Thiji 
Ccdo 

10X 

ttm  is 

filmi 

It  Ml 

dalt 
filme 

htrad 
auu 

14  X 

UCtlOl 

»de 

n  ratio  chM 
rMuction  ii 

Indb 
Hiiqiii 
1IX 

tlow/ 

1  ci-d«nous 

22X 

«X 

XX 



y 

12X 

1«X 

20X 

2«X 

28  X 

32  X 

Th*  copy  filtnad  har*  hu  b««n  raproduead  thanki 
10  tha  ganarosily  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  fWmt  fut  raproduit  gr^ca  i  la 
gtnAroiiU  da: 

Blbllotheque  nationals  du  Canada 


Tha  imaga*  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
pouibia  considaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaoping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apacificaiiona. 


Original  capiat  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  fllmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  imprsa- 
lion,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firit  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
aion,  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  impraaaion. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
ahall  contain  tha  aymbol  —^  Imaaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  tymbol  V  Imaaning  "END"), 
whichavar  appliaa. 


Laa  imaga*  luivanta*  ont  ttt  raproduita*  avac  I* 
plu*  grand  toin,  compia  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nanaia  da  I'aiiamplaira  tilmi,  at  »n 
conformlta  avac  la*  condition*  du  contrat  da 
fllmaga. 

Laa  axamplairaa  originaua  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  imprimte  lont  filma*  an  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  (oil  par  la 
darnitra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illu*tration,  aoit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  aalon  la  ca*.  Tou*  la*  autra*  axamplaira* 
originau*  lont  filmta  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration  at  »n  tarminant  par 
la  darnitra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  aymbola*  *uivant*  apparait.-*  *ur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  salon  la 
caa:  la  aymbola  •>»  aignifla  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
aymbola  ▼  aignifia  "FIN". 


Mapa,  Plata*,  chart*,  ate,  may  ba  fllmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratio*.  Tho*a  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  frama*  a* 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrama  illuatrata  tha 
mathod: 


Laa  carta*,  plancha*.  tablaaux.  ate.  pauvant  itra 
fllmte  1  daa  Uux  da  rMuction  diffiranti. 
Loraqua  la  documant  aat  trop  grand  pour  atra 
raproduit  an  un  *aul  elich*.  il  aat  filmt  t  partir 
da  I'angla  *up4riaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  i  droita. 
at  da  haut  an  baa.  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  nAcaaaaira.  La*  diagramma*  auivani* 
illu*tr*nt  la  mtthoda. 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

motoconr  rksolution  tist  chart 

'ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 

Ifl^ 

■  2.5 

ip.2 

I.I 

llil£ 

1.8 


1125  mil  1.4 


1^  1^  m 


^     APPLIED  IM^GE    Inc 


1653   Eo)t   Ma,n   SUeef 
RoctmtBr,   Hew   I'oric         1 
(716)   +BJ  -  OJOO-  Pfion 
(716)   288-  5989  -  fo- 


'VOY^p  ON  THE  YUKON 
;  AND  ITS  XRIBUTARIES 


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HUDSON  STUCK 


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VOYAGES   ON   THE   YUKON 
AND  ITS  TRIBUTARIES 


BOOKS  BY  HUDSON  STUCK,  D.D..  F.R.G.S. 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


THB  .\aCCNT  or  DINALl  <MT.  McKINLBV) 

lUuitr-iteil.    Hvo Xel    tl.75 

"A  woH'Irriul  rKiinl  of  JndomiuUe  pluck  and  rnduranrf  " 

—BnUttim^lk*  Amtwu^n  Ct«ffhitai  Sotittj. 
"llR  paRn  make  one  wUh  that  all  nounlain  climben  miichl  Im 
trrtHlraroni  i(  their  accouDti  mijtht  thui  fain,  in  the  intereiit  M 
happcniiuti  by  the  way,  emotional  vfiiun  and  intetleclual  outlook." 
— ,Vfi»  Yofh  Timv. 

TBN  THOU  tAND  MtLBS  WITH  A  DO^  8UCO 
A  NniTkt  /■  of  Wlnttr  Travtl  In  Intcrk  Uuka 
niuittated     8vo JVd    11.73 

"Onpof  the  moat  (aKinatinx  and  allofether  utiafactory  booki of 

travel  which  we  have  aeen  Ihia  year,  or.  indeed,  any  year." 

-Nr»  Ynh  THImm. 

"This  itanllnily  brilliant  \>otk.."—Liltrary  IHfit. 


U\    \>.<"         I  '\        ! 


4     ^ 


' ■*  i  ili 


ni"}'i:  >\ 


U  A  fi 


VOYAGES  ON  THE  YUKON 
AND  ITS  TRIBUTARIES 

A    NARRATIVE    OF    SUMMER    TRAVEL    IN    THE    INTERIOR 
OF   ALASKA 


A 


''1^Z_ 


BY 


HUDSON  STUCK.  D.D..  F.R.G.S. 


AUTHOR  or 
"THE  ASCENT  OF  DENAU  (MT.  McKINLEV,,"  ..JEN  THOUSAND 
A  DOG  SLED,"  ETC. 


MILES  WITH 


WITH  MAPS  AND   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW    YORK 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 


1917 


*  10  ! 


2  0117 i 


ComtOHT,  1017.  IT 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

Fubliibcd  Novembei,  1917 


WALTER   HARPER 
ARTHUR    WRIGHT 

AND 

JOHN   FREDSON 

NATIVE   AlASKAN   YOUTHS,  WHO  DURING  THE    PAST 

TEN   YEARS   HAVE    BEEN 

ENGINEERS  AND  PILOTS  OF  THE    LAUNCH 

"PEUr.N" 

AS  WELL  AS  DOG-DRIVERS  AND  TRAIL  ATTENDANTS 

ON  MANY  THOUSAND   MILES 

OF  THE  AUTHOR'S   WINTER  JOURNEYS 

THIS  BOOK 

IS   DEDICATED  IN  AFFECTIONATE 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT    OF    FAITHFUL    AND 

KINDLY  SERVICE 


PREFACE 


I 


/■-  PREFACE  is  useful,  if  it  be  useful  at  all,  in  convey- 
ing to  the  reader  some  fuller  notion  of  the  nature  of  the 
book  he  holds  in  his  hand  than  the  brevity  of  the  title- 
page  permits,  so  that  he  may  have  guidance  as  to  whether 
It  be  worth  his  reading  or  not. 

This  book,  then,  while  quite  complete  in  itself,  is 
written  as  supplement  and  complement  to  "Ten  Thou- 
sand Miles  with  a  Dog-Sled,"  and  forms  therewith  a 
survey  of  the  interior  of  Alaska  under  the  totally  differ- 
ent aspects  of  winter  and  summer.  In  winter  one  travels 
with  the  dog  team  almost  wherever  one  wishes;  summer 
travel  ,s  confined  to  the  waterways  with  which  interior 
Alaska  IS  so  liberally  supplied;  so  that  a  book  on  river 
voyages  may  really  deal  with  the  whole  country  so  far 
as  the  summer  is  concerned. 

Since  this  book  may  have  readers  its  predecessor  had 
not.  It  IS  well  to  explain  that  it  is  a  sober  attempt  to  de- 
scribe the  country  and  its  people,  without  any  ulterior 
ends  whatever.  It  has  no  drum-and-trumpet  purpose- 
it  does  not  boost  and  boom;  it  is  no  "Nation  in  the  Mak- 
ing" book,  no  "Frontier  Wonderland"  book;  it  owes  no 
inspiration  to  chambers  of  commerce  or  allegiance  to 
railway  propagandists,  official  or  otherwise.  It  does  not 
"leap  from  crag  to  crag  with  loud  and  jocund  shout" 
along  the  Yukon  River  nor  sound  the  loud  timbrel  o'er 


VIII 


PREFACE 


Bering's  dark  sea.  Such  tasks  may  safely  be  left  to  the 
visiting  journalists,  of  whose  books  on  Alaska  there  is 
plentiful  supply. 

It  is  now  thirteen  years  since  the  author  began  his 
residence  in  the  interior  of  Alaska,  and  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  time  of  that  residence  has  been  spent  in  al- 
most continual  travel.  The  present  season  is  the  tenth 
during  which  the  launch  Pelican  has  traversed  the  waters 
of  the  Yukon  and  its  tributaries,  and  the  total  distance 
she  has  covered  is  close  upon  thirty  thousand  miles. 

The  original  plan  of  the  book  contemplated  the 
transcription  of  a  series  of  journeys  from  the  log  of  the 
launch  and  the  author's  diaries,  in  much  the  way  that 
"Ten  Thousand  Miles  with  a  Dog-Sled"  was  composed, 
and  the  title  was  determined  upon  at  that  time.  But 
when  the  plan  came  to  the  execution  the  author  found 
that  the  subject  did  not  readily  lend  itself  to  such  treat- 
ment. 

He  has  therefore  preferred  to  take  the  reader  right 
down  the  Yukon  River  from  its  source  to  its  mouth 
without  much  specific  reference  to  the  voyages  of  the 
Pelican,  and  this  journey  constitutes  the  first  part  of 
the  book. 

The  journeys  which  the  second  part  of  the  book  de- 
scribes were  made  on  the  Alaskan  rivers  tributary  to  the 
Yukon,  the  "side  streams"  as  they  are  generally  called 
by  river  men,  though  they  are  themselves  great  rivers, 
and  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  each  of  the  more  important 
ones.  All  of  these  streams  except  the  Chandalar  have 
bee.i  traversed  again  and  again  by  the  launch,  and  in- 


PREFACE  ix 

cidents  are  often  culled  from  several  such  journeys  and 
incorporated  in  the  one  which  the  reader  is  invited  to 
take. 

Here,  as  indeed  throughout  the  book,  the  author  has 
availed  himself  of  any  sources  of  information  to  his  hand 
that  might  add  to  the  interest  of  the  description,  but  his 
own  diaries  have  been  the  chief  source  because  it  has  long 
been  his  habit  to  note  therein  whatever  attracted  his 
attention  of  local  history  or  tradition  as  well  as  the  de- 
tails of  voyages.  In  the  extraction  and  digestion  of  such 
notes  care  has  been  exercised  to  verify  and  supplement 
what  has  been  given  of  dates  and  cir-rumstances  of  record, 
and  in  the  course  thereof  he  has  read  over  again,  he  be- 
lieves, every  published  account  of  Alaskan  exploration 
except  the  Russian. 

It  has  been  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  chief 

purpose  of  this  book  is  a  narrative  that  should  interest 

the  general  reader  and  convey  a  just  impression  of  the 

country  and  its  inhabitants,  and  in  some  cases  a  brief 

sentence,  a  date  or  a  name,  may  be  all  that  stands  for 

hours  of  such  reading,  or  there  may  stand  nothing  at  all. 

Scientific  instruments,    such    as   thermometers    and 

barometers,  are  said  to  be  least  reliable  at  the  extremes 

of  their  scales;  so  it  may  be  said  that  what  a  man  writes 

is  least  valuable  when  he  is  writing  up  to  the  limit  of 

what  he  knows,  and  lessens  in  value  as  it  approaches 

that  limit.    It  follows  that  to  deal  thoroughly  with  the 

literature  of  any  subject  it  is  not  only  necessary  to  read  a 

great  deal,  but  it  is  also  necessary  to  be  content  not  to 

use  a  great  deal  that  is  read. 


X  PREFACE 

The  exigencie*  jf  authorship  at  a  point  within  the 
Arctic  regions,  in  the  absence  of  all  books  save  the  com- 
?non  books  of  general  reference  and  such  special  books  of 
the  north  as  he  has  diligently  collected  in  the  last  few 
years,  ni?y  perhaps  plead  the  author's  excuse  for  some  of 
the  faults  he  is  quite  conscious  the  book  contains;  the 
intervention  of  i  winter-sled  journey  of  three  mont'is' 
duration  between  the  despatch  of  the  first  part  to  the 
printer  and  the  writing  of  the  second,  so  that  in  the  w)  it- 
ing  of  the  second  he  has  been  unable  to  refresh  his  mem- 
ory of  the  first,  may  account  for  some  lack  of  co-ordina- 
tion, some  repetition,  which  he  fears  a  careful  examination 
will  disclose;  while  the  unfortunate  circumstance  that  he 
is  so  situated  that  he  cannot  read  a  paged  proof  of  the 
book  without  delaying  its  publication  for  a  whole  year, 
he  asks  may  be  remembered  should  the  volume  not 
match  the  record  of  its  predecessor  in  being  free  from 
printer's  errors,  and,  in  particular,  should  the  reader  be 
annoyed,  as  the  author  is  always  annoyed,  by  finding  il- 
lustrations not  placed  against  the  text  they  are  intended 
to  illustrate.  *" 

Here,  with  submission  to  the  reader,  is  no  apology 
for  scamped  or  hasty  work — there  can  be  no  apology  for 
offering  such  to  the  world;  the  book  has  been  prepar^-d 
with  all  possible  care,  has  been  written  and  rewritten; 
but  there  are  several  particulars  in  which  the  author 
would  have  been  glad  to  be  more  precise,  or  more  posi- 
tively assured,  had  the  means  been  at  his  command. 

The  author  has  no  apology  to  oflfer  for  the  freedom 
with  which  he  has  expressed  his  opinions  on  many  mat- 


PREFACE  xi 

ters  which  engage  his  interot  and  concern;  he  has  had 
opportunity  for  careful  ob  ervation  and  reP  .tion  ar.d 
they  are  not  hasty  or  ill-cnsidered.  The  reader  will 
make  his  own  estimate  of  their  worth. 

Beyond  his  obligations  to  the  authors  he  has  cited 
in  the  text  the  present  writer  has  no  acknowledgments 
of  literary  assistance  to  make,  save  to  a  lady  in  New 
York  who  presents  the  a  nirable  and  very  rare  com- 
bination  of  a  highly  cultivated  woman  and  an  expert 
stenographer  and  machine-writer.  The  care  she  has 
bestowed  upon  his  manuscript  is  of  the  kind  that  fees 
cannot  compensate,  and  as  one  who,  in  his  time,  has  suf- 
fered many  things  of  many  stenographers,  he  offers 
his  grateful  thanks  to  Mrs.  Kathleen  More. 

But  if  this  be  the  only  obligation  of  a  literary  nature 
under  which  he  labours,  there  is  another  obligation, 
without  which  the  book  could  not  have  been  written  at 
all;  and  for  leisure  and  convenience  for  writing  even 
amidst  the  disturbance  of  removal  from  a  house  under- 
mined by  the  encroaching  waters  of  the  Yukon  River, 
for  every  possible  assistance  and  relief  of  a  domestic 
kind,  the  author  is  profoundly  grateful  to  Doctor  Graf- 
ton Burke,  the  medical  missionary  at  Fort  Yukon,  and 
in  even  higher  degree  to  Mrs.  Burke;  and  here  makes 
affectionate  acknowledgment  to  them  both. 

Fort  Yukon,  Alaska, 
Junt,  191 7. 


CONTENTS 

InTKOOUCTORV  OlAnER  '"■ 

I 

PART   I 

I.    Th«  Ufpm  Yukon 

I8 

II.    The  Uffer  Yukon-Fortymile.  Eacle.  and  Circle      5, 

III.  The  Yukon  Flats 

90 

IV.  The  Lower  Ramparts  and  Tanana „, 

v.  Tanana  to  Nulato 

'49 

VI.    Kaltao.  Anvik.  Holy  Cross,  The  Pimute  Portage. 
Marshall  .     . 

'71 

VII.    The  Delta  Country,  Bering  Sea.  and  St.  M.chael    198 

PART  II 

VIII.    The  PoRcuprNE  and  the  Chandalar ,j, 

IX.    The  Tanana  River     . 

262 

X.    The  Koyukuk  River 

3'2 

XI.    The  Chaoeluk  Slough.    The  Innoko  and  Iditarod 
Rivers  ... 

364 

Index      .     . 

389 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Ptlican  reaching  Eagle  . 
The  inside  passage 

The  ruins  of  the  town  of  Beiinett    ' 

The  Five  Finger  Rapids  . 

Dawson,  the  Klondike,  and  the  Yukon  f  ,     ..  ' 

The  town  of  Eagle  '"^  ^"''■'"  f™»  "■=  Moosehide 

Native  children  at  Circle  City 

I      The  Yukon  Flats  ...  ''■'■•■ 

Play  encan,p.ent  of  Indian 'chndren,;  Fort  Yukon      ' 

A  gathenng  thunder-storm  on  the  Yukon 

'I  little  mother  '  ' 

The  town  of  Rampart 

Yukon  River,  within  »k=  i 

"''  '™'f  ramparts  .     . 

T;:zr:::::;r:7"'--^— ■ . 
--eyarda?..::;:?^:—-- 

1  he  Kokerine  Mountains 
The  town  of  Ruby  in  its  «„,,.;„;;,    '      ' 
I-owden       .     _  ^       ■      . 

The  Bishop  Mouniain' near  the  Koyukuk  mouth 

At  .he  site  of  the  Nulato  Massacre  of  .85, 

A  fish-wheel  on  the  Yukon  River  '      '  ■ 

The  Mission  buildings  at  Anvik  '     '     '      '      ' 

A  native  fish-camp  on  the  middle  Yukon" 

The  Roman  Catholic  mission  and  «ho„,  ,,  Holy  Cross 

A  native  graveyard  on  the  lower  Yukon  ' 

The  Russian  Mission  and  the  church 

Towing  barges  of  merchandise  up  the  Yukon 
The  diversions  of  the  squaw-man 


fmnlijpitct 
FAtrifG  Pace 


Moun 


tain 


i6 

34 
SO 
•       7i 
88 

■  94 

■  94 

•  96 

•  io6 

■  «34 

•  136 

■  138 

■  '44 

'44 

156 

i6j 

162 

166 

166 

'74 

'76 

180 

■  88 
188 
'94 
'96 
200 


t 

ir 

i  I 


xvi  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facino  Paob 

One  of  the  maze  of  waterways  near  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  204 

The  old  Russian  blockhouse  at  St.  Michael 21J 

Native  types 216 

In  the  upper  ramparts 236 

At  the  entrance  of  the  lower  ramparts 240 

At  the  Rampart  House— one  foot  in  Alaska,  one  foot  in  Canada  240 

Looking  down  the  ramparts  from  the  Rampart  House 244 

The  native  village  and  mission  at  Nenana 284 

The  Mission  buildings  and  potato-field  at  Nenana 288 

A  native  fish-camp,  Nenana 292 

The  great  fire  at  Fairbanks  in  1906 300 

The  rapid  rebuilding  a  few  days  after  the  fire 3°° 

The  Bates  Rapids 306 

The  Pelican  near  the  mouth  of  the  Koyukuk 3*4 

Eskimos  on  the  river  shortly  after  the  break-up 314 

In  the  cut-off.     Hogatzakaket  Mountains  in  the  distance  ....  318 

A  native  encampment  on  the  Koyukuk  River 324 

A  baptism  on  the  river  bank 3^6 

The  Mission  buildings  at  Allakaket 33^ 

The  fire-making  contest  at  Allakaket 342 

Indians  coming  to  the  Mission 34^ 

Freighting  on  the  upper  Koyukuk 354 

Doctor  Loomis  vaccin^.tlng  natives  on  the  Yukon 366 

On  the  Innoko  River 374 

An  Innoko  River  mother 37^ 

The  beginnings  of  Iditarod  City 380 

Iditarod  City  and  the  Iditarod  River 382 

On  the  Iditarod  River 3^6 

MAPS 

A  fraction  of  the  Yukon  Flats — compass  survey  by  William  Yanert  .  122 

Map  of  Alaska ^t  'nd  of  volume 


PART  I 


"    J      J 

'111 


I 


VOYAGES  ON  THE  YUKON 

INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

.  Jrrz".:'„'i:ir  -°™  *'"•  h™- 

.  .  ^"^  °'   channels  between   iclanj„       j 

the   mainland,  known   as  the  "Insirp.         1    '"'' 
no  more  than  twn  nr  ,1,         .  Passage,"  with 

of  the   Pac  fie  OceTn   r  '  ""  "'"^  '''  °P^"  -^" 
briefly.  ""   ''   encountered,   and   there  but 

There  are  three  and  only  three  ..,.1, 
in  the  world:    alone  the  M  '"  P^'^'^g" 

coast  of  Chile  in  enrel  9  7!*"  '°'^''  ^'""^  '^e 
-de  Passage  of  h  'Sh  ^  k"""'  "'  '"''  '"■ 
In  all  of  them  a  llrrf  ^  7"""  """^  ^'^^'^^  ~^«- 
the  ocean  swdl  anT  lalf  %  ."''"'^  ^'""  ^''^""  f-™ 

and  wildest  dtc:;ti :  t  t^hT^  °' '^ °'''"^ 
of  them  the  coast  !«  .     T  *''^"'''°'^  toute,  for  in  all 


'  I 


ALASKAN  COAST  SCENERY 


are  many  who  have  visited  both  the  Norwegian  and 
Alaskan  coasts,  and  the  consensus  of  their  opinion  would 
probably  give  the  palm  to  the  Scandinavian  scenery 
for  its  more  varied  charm  and  the  much  higher  latitude 
into  which  it  ascends.  The  Norwegian  shore  is  very 
well  known  and  has  been  described  a  great  many  times. 
The  best  description  which  I  know  of  the  Chilean  coast 
is  in  Sir  Martin  Conway's  book,  "Aconcagua  and  Tierra 
del  Fuego,"  and  he  considers  it  as  yielding  in  interest 
to  the  coast  of  Norway.  But  as  he  sketches  that  rugged, 
precipitous,  forested  coast,  threaded  with  waterfalls  and 
gashed  with  glaciers,  of  Messier  Channel  and  Smyth 
Channel  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  the  parallel  with 
the  Alaskan  coast  grows  more  and  more  striking.  Pages 
of  his  vivid  description  might  be  transcribed  without 
the  alteration  of  a  word  and  would  serve  as  an  ad- 
mirable general  account  of  the  Inside  Passage.  The 
Alaskan  coast  is  not  wrapped  in  such  constant  gloom 
and  cloud,  though  at  times  it  can  be  foggy  enough,  and 
it  has  far  greater  interest  of  picturesque  native  popula- 
tion, as  well  as  the  mining  and  fishing  enterprises  of 
white  men,  with  thriving  towns  and  settlements,  which 
the  South  American  coast  wholly  lacks,  but  the  physical 
characteristics  are  virtually  the  same. 

There  is  no  gain,  however,  in  attempting  to  set  up  a 
rivalry  between  the  attractions  of  different  places,  and 
appraising  the  comparative  picturesque  value  of  this 
and  that  feature,  as  I  have  heard  men  do  between  the 
Alps  and  the  Rockies,  for  instance.  It  will  generally 
be  found  that  they  who  are  really  appreciative  of  the 


EARLY  NAVIGATORS  3 

one,  become  upon  acquaintance  most  highly  apprecia- 
tive of  the  other,  and  certainly  they  whose  love  of  noble 
wild  prospects  has  led  them  across  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Norwegian  fiords,  will  be  they  who  find  the  greatest 
delight  ui  the  Inside  Passage. 

Even  its  most  enthusiastic  admirers,  however,  must 
be  willmg  to  admit  a  certain  monotony  in  a  continuous 
thousand  miles  of  scenery  all  of  the  same  kind.  "Always 
fine,  no  doubt,  but  always  fine  in  the  same  way,"  as 
Conway  writes  of  Smyth  Channel.  It  is  therefore  well 
that  the  Inside  Passage  possesses  other  than  merely 
picturesque  interest;  that  it  has  historic  interest;  and 
the  traveller  is  well  advised  who  provides  himself 
with  books  in  which  the  history  of  these  parts  is  set 
lorth. 

We  are  on  the  track  of  the  great  navigators  of  the 
eighteenth  century  as  we  pass  through  these  waters, 
on  the  track  of  the  two  greatest  of  them  all,  Captain 
James  Cook  and   Captain   George   Vancouver,   and   if 
the  voyage  be  extended  to  the  westward  before  or  after 
the  rive*  journey  is  made,  as  is  often  done  now,  the 
track  of  still  another  will  be  crossed— Vitus  Bering     It 
will  add  immensely  to  the  interest  of  the  trip  if  the  work 
of  these  bold  seamen  be  understood  and  followed.    Espe- 
cially is  this  the  case  with  George  Vancouver.     Fro"> 
Puget  Sound  to  the  Lynn  Canal-that  is  to  say,  the 
whole  stretch  of  the  Inside  Passage-the  whole  coast 
teems  with  the  names  that  he  applied.   Cook's  "  Voyages  " 
may  be  had  in  many  editions,  but  Vancouver's  "Voyages" 
are  long  out  of  print  and  very  expensive.     I  cannot 


If, 


4  SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION 

understand  why  in  this  day  of  cheap  reprints  no  one 
has  republished  Vancouver's  "Voyages."  However,  Pro- 
fessor Meaney  of  the  University  of  Washington  has 
issued  a  most  careful  and  painstaking  volume*  in  which 
he  has  traced  Vancouver's  names  over  a  considerable 
oortion  of  the  coast  and  has  incorporated  almost  one 
volume  of  the  "Voyages"  into  his  text,  with  elucidating 
notes  and  many  illustrations.  It  is  a  thoroughly  modest 
and  scholarly  piece  of  work  and  should  be  in  the  pos- 
session of  every  intelligent  visitor.  If  in  another  edition 
the  work  could  be  extended  and  the  same  care  given 
to  the  remainder  of  the  coast,  with  some  notice  of  Post- 
lock  and  Dixon  and  Meares,  the  whole  would  constitute 
a  complete  historical  commentary  of  the  coast  that 
would  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  cultured  traveller.  The 
"Coast  Pilot,"  with  detailed  charts,  may  be  had  in  Seattle 
for  fifty  cents,  and  is  also  an  interesting  companion  to 
the  voyager.  Another  government  publication,  that 
may  be  had  for  a  like  amount  if  not  indeed  for  the  ask- 
ing, "The  Geographical  Dictionary  of  Alaska,"  will 
answer  correctly  many  a  question  concerning  the  origin 
and  meaning  of  names,  both  on  the  coast  and  on  the 
Yukon,  that  steamboat  captains  and  others  to  whom 
they  are  commonly  addressed  are  unable  to  answer. 

If  instead  of  the  latest  "best-selling"  trash,  and  a 
pile  of  trumpery  ten-cent  magazines,  the  visitor  will 
thus  provide  himself,  he  will  carry  away  with  him  a 
much  more  graphic  recollection  of  what  he  has  seen, 
and  will  find  that  he  has  added  to  his  permanent  knowl- 

•  Vancouver'!  "Ducovery  of  Puget'i  Sound"  (The  MacmilUn  Co.). 


INDIAN  MONUMENTS 

edge  of  the  history  and  geography  of  his  country-which 
.8  worth  while,  even  on  a  holiday  trip 

book  tl"*"  ""!,  "'  "'■"''"  ""'  '"•"P^'"  °^  '»-'  P'"=nt 
book  to  provide  an  itinerary  of  the  sea  voyage,   but 

smce  nearly  all  those  who  visit  the  Yukon  approach 

by  way  of  the  Inside  Passage,  it  ha.  not  been'though 

out  of  place  to  say  a  few  words  about  it 

journr  Th'  ""''"■  ^'^  =>  --""^^''V  -Pressive 
journey.  The  memory  of  its  placid  waterways,  the 
s  vage  majesty  of  its  towering  mountains,  the  mystery 
of  ,ts  mnumerable  gloomy  inlets,  the  gleam  of  its  loftT 

dram  them  down  to  the  water's  edge,  the  dense,  dark 
uxunance   of  the   velvety   forests    threaded    with    the 

hvmg  sdver  of  the  waterfalls,  will  long  remain  to  gladden 
he  m.„d  s  eye  of  him  who  has  intelligently  observed 

them.     Nor  w.ll  the  uncouth  pageantry  of  the  native 

monuments  be  readily  forgotten,  the  gules  and  vert 
and  azure  of  pnmmve  heraldry  displayed  in  the  totems 
or  clan  ensigns  that  were  erected  in  front  of  their  dwell- 
■ng'';  grotesque  animal  carvings  gaudily  painted,  but 
often  rendered  with  an  admirable  vigour,  and  more- 
significant  certamly,  than  much  of  the  modern  heraldry 
of  note-paper  and  teaspoons.  Those  who  are  interested 
m  that  significance  may  obtain  from  a  clergyman  at 
Wrangel  a  pamphlet  with  a  popular  exposition  thereof 
or  they  may  send  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Wash- 

Z^n' I  '"'""  '°"'  '"'^  '"'"'=''  monographs.  The 
totem-poles  are  rotting  away  in  the  rank  wetness  of  the 
climate  and  no  more  are  made  to-day;  for  the  Thlinkets 


6  NATIVE  DEVELOPMENT 

havt  been  educated  out  of  regard  for  their  ancestor*  by 
teachers  who  for  the  most  part  had  no  ancestors  and 
therefore  cannot  see  anything  but  heathenism  in  dis- 
tinctions of  family  descent.    There  is  no  scorn  more 
withering  than  the  scorn  of  a  man  who  does  not  know 
who  his  grandfathers  were,  for  "the  pomp  of  heraldry." 
The  steam-roller  of  our  civilisation  is  slowly  passing 
over  these  people  and  flattening  out  any  picturesque 
prominence  of  custom  and  costume  into  the  dead  level 
of  modern  uniformity.    Those  who  would  see  what  yet 
remains  of  the  dignity  and  parade  of  savage  life,  of  mas- 
sive-timbered communal  houses  flanked  and  surrounded 
by  the  bold  blazonry  of  eagle  and  whale,  of  bear  and 
wolf  and  beaver,  of  gorgeous  and  grotesque  ceremonial 
dress  and  accoutrement,  must  not  linger.    It  is  nearly 
gone  now. 

These  Indians  of  the  southeastern  toast  of  Alaska, 
and  of  the  coast  of  British  Columbia,  had  advanced 
much  further  in  the  arts  and  in  the  organisation  of  life 
than  the  Indians  of  the  interior  of  Alaska,  with  whom 
we  shall  cc-ne  into  contact  presently.  A  kindlier  climate 
had  given  them  greater  opportunity;  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  impulses  from  the  more  developed  rac  ••  of 
the  Orient  had  come  to  them  from  time  to  time  in  the 
shape  of  castaways  blown  right  across  the  Pacific  to 
these  shores.  Copper  they  knew  and  used  with  much 
skill,  obtaining  it  by  barter  from  tribes  farther  to  the 
north  who  picked  up  the  "float"  in  the  beds  of  the 
rivers.  They  had  marched  some  stages  in  the  path  of 
racial  development,  and  one  dreams  that  they  might 


CIVILISATION  AND   DEGENERATION  7 

:  ave  been  led  along  that  path,  retaining  what  thry  had 
themselves  to  painfully  gained,  into  a  civilisation  that 
should  have  been  their  own.  The  ferocity  of  their  war- 
like  nature  tamed  (as  it  was  tamed)  by  Christianity, 
lU  enterprise,  its  ingenuity,  its  skill,  its  boldness  and 
courage,  might  have  been  drawn  into  channels  that 
would  have  given  them  some  distinctive  place  in  the 
world,  however  small,  instead  of  being  merely  merged 
and  lost  in  the  slush  of  black-and-tan  humanity  that 
frmges  the  tide  of  the  white  man's  civilisation  wherever 
he  goes. 

It  is  only  a  dream:  others  have  doubtless  dreamed 
It,  but  I  do  not  know  of  any  place  in  the  world  where 
such  a  dream  has  been  realised.  I  think  "Father  Dun- 
can" of  Metlahkahtla  had  some  such  dream,  but  after 
a  life-long  struggle,  circumstances  have  been  too  strong 
for  him.  What  he  has  accomplished  he  has  accom- 
plished,  and  there  are  few  living  whose  memorirs  gc. 
far  enough  back  to  grasp  the  whole  of  it,  but  his  plan 
of  a  separate  people,  kept  distinct  from  intrusion  and 
themselves  kept  from  intruding,  working  out  their 
own  future  on  their  own  island,  has  already  lapsed. 
The  fate  of  these  seacoast  Indians  is  not  in  much 
doubt. 

Another  element  of  interest  the  Inside  Passage  has 
that  will  appeal  with  more  force  to  most  visitors  than 
regrets  over  the  passing  of  picturesque  barbarians,  and 
that  IS  the  glimpse  which  from  time  to  time  is  afforded 
of  the  permanent  occupation  of  the  country  and  utili- 
sation of  its  resources  by  the  white  man.    The  numer- 


'M 


8 


COAST  INDUSTRIES 


1 
II    i 


ous  and  ever-increasing  canneries  where  the  spoil  of  the 
sea  is  taken  with  a  lavishness  that  justifies  itself  by 
complacently  assuming  the  spoil  to  be  inexhaustible, 
yield  an  annual  revenue  to  British  Columbia  operators 
alone  of  fourteen  million  dollars,  as  I  read  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  the  other  day,  and  the  Alaskan  coast 
is  quite  as  thickly  studded  with  them. 

But  the  centre  of  interest  so  far  as  this  permanent 
occupation  is  concerned  is  Juneau,  where  quartz  gold- 
mining  on  so  prodigious  a  scale  is  under  way  that  it  is 
confidently  predicted  by  the  engineers  that  in  a  few 
more  years  this  district  will  be  second  only  to  the  South 
African  Rand  in  the  amount  of  its  production;  with 
bodies  of  ore  of  sufficient  known  extent  to  maintain 
the  production  for  a  century.  Within  a  radius  of  a  few 
miles  from  Juneau,  on  both  sides  of  the  Gastineau 
Channel,  are  to-day  gathered  nearly  a  third  of  all  the 
white  population  of  Alaska. 

The  visitor  wl.o  passes  along  this  coast,  and  then 
goes  to  the  westward  and  sees  the  towns  of  Prince  Wil- 
liam's Sound  and  Cook's  Inlet,  will  have  seen  what 
Alaska  has  to  show  of  permanent  white  settlement. 
In  all  the  vast  interior  there  is  as  yet  no  white  settle- 
ment that  does  not  depend  directly  or  indirectly  upon 
placer  gold-mining,  and  nothing  that  depends  on  placer- 
mining  can  be  called  permanent. 

The  sea  voyage  begins  with  Vancouver  and  ends 
'vith  Vancouver  and  never  gets  away  from  Vancouver's 
courses  and  Vancouver's  names.  His  charts  were  still 
in  use  in  these  waters  a  decade  or  so  ago,  and,  as  I  am 


VANCOUVER'S  ACHIEVEMENTS  9 

informed,  are  even  in  use  yet,  when  the  navigation  of 
unfrequented  inlets  is  attempted.     It  is  wonderful  to 
think  of  the  careful,  exact  wo'k  a.  nc  ;;  hundred  and 
thirty  years  ago  by  the  sailing  vessels  a.id  •  aip's  boats 
under  his  command,  threading  the  labyrii  th  of  these 
waterways,    with    their    tides    running    like    mill-races, 
laymg  down  the  coast-line  of  the  mainland  and  of  the 
islands,  sounding  the  channels,  determining  the  geograph- 
ical position  of  all  important  points,  and  carrying  the 
survey  all  along  the  shore.     He  was  not  only  a  great 
navigator,  he  was  a  great  hydrographer,   and  he  was 
more  than  that,  he  was  a  great  gentleman,  as  his  treat- 
ment of  the  natives  wherever  he  came  in  contact  with 
them,  in  the  South  Seas  as  on  the  Alaskan  coast,  testi- 
fies.    We  begin  with   him   at    Puget   Sound,  which   is 
named  for  his  lieutenant,  and  we  end  with  him  at  the 
Lynn  Canal,  which  he  named  for  his  birthplace  in  Essex. 
I  am  not  sure  if  it  be  the  same  Lynn,  but  the  name  al- 
ways recalls  to  me  the  last  lines  of  Tom  Hood's  power- 
ful poem,  "The  Dream  of  Eugene  Aram"-a  poem  that 
used  to  give  me  creepy  feelings  in  childhood: 

"Two  stem-faced  men  set  out  from  Lynn 
Through  the  cold  and  heavy  mist, 
And  Eugene  Aram  walked  between 
With  gyves  upon  his  wrist." 

I  must  not  get  upon  the  subject  of  Vancouver,  how- 
ever, or  it  will  be  long  ere  we  reach  the  Yukon. 

The  sea  voyage  ends  at  Skagway,  on  the  Lynn  Canal, 
and  a  short  day's  wild  ride  on  the  White  Pass  Railway 
will  take  the  visitor  to  the  summit  of  the  coast  range 


,o  MT.  DEWEY 

by  a  series  of  bold  gradients  and  will  drop  him  down 
again  on  the  other  side  in  the  valley  of  the  Lewes  or 
Yukon  River. 

But  before  leaving  Skagway  the  visitor  of  any  robust 
constitution  whose  baggage  contains  other  foot-gear 
than  patent-leather  shoes,  is  urged  to  spend  a  day  in 
the  ascent  of  Mt.  Dewey,  a  fairly  easy  climb  of  some- 
thing less  than  five  thousand  feet,  and  get  the  superb 
bird's-eye  view  of  the  country  which  that  summit  af- 
fords. Let  him  dismiss  from  his  mind  any  worry  about 
steamboat  connections;  he  has  come  to  the  gateway  of 
a  country  where  he  will  take  his  chance  with  the  rest 
of  us  of  catching  a  boat  or  missing  it,  all  schedules 
of  sailings  and  confident  telegraphic  assurances  being 
equally  vain  and  void.  If  he  must  wait,  then  he  will 
wait;  and  storming  and  denouncing  are  idle;  and  wait 
he  almost  certainly  must  at  one  point  or  another.  To 
recognise  and  accept  this  situation  will  bring  peace  of 
mind;   any  other  attitude  will  but  uselessly  disturb  it. 

The  climb  of  Mt.  Dewey  is  by  a  well-defined  foot- 
path through  the  dense  woods  to  one  bench  after  an- 
other, and  each  bench  bears  a  lake  and  the  lakes  are 
connected  by  sparkling  mountain  torrents  that  fall  again 
and  again  in  white  cascades.  When  the  upper  lake  is 
reached,  the  woods  are  past,  the  climber  flounders 
through  some  boggy  ground  for  a  short  distance  to 
emerge  upon  the  rounded  mossy  shoulder  of  the  moun- 
tain, thickly  bestrewn  with  boulders,  and  a  short  and 
easy  climb  in  the  open  brings  him  to  the  coastwise  face. 
Without  proceeding  to  the  top  (though  that  additional 


VIEW  FROM  MT.  DEWEY 


II 


labour  IS  well   repaid)   he   will    gain,   from    this    lofty 
coign,  m  the  course  of  a  deliberate  survey  of  the  scenes 
before  h.m.  a  better  general  grasp  and   knowledge  of 
the  characteristics  of  this  region  than  steaming  up  and 
down  the  Lynn  Canal  from  Juneau  to  Skagway  for  a 
thousand  years  would   bring  him.    "Why  will   people 
.magme    that  they   have    seen    a    country  when    they 
have  but  passed  along  a  channel  at  the  very  bottom 
of  It?     asks  Conway.     He  that  has  once  viewed  New 
York  from  the  top  of  the  Woolworth  tower  has  cer- 
tamly  a  better  conception  of  its  situation  and  environ- 
ment than  he  that  has  viewed  it  only  from  the  pavement 
of  Wall  Street  and   Broadway  every  day  of  his  life. 
What  a  magnificent  prospect  of  rock  and  ice,  snow  and 
water,  spreads  out  before  us!  worth  incomparably  more 
than  all  the  visits  to  evil-smelling  fish  canneries  and 
deafenmg  quartz  stamp-mills  in  the  world.     Here  we 
are  m  nature's  own  gigantic  workshop;    let  us  linger 
awhile  and  see  what  she  is  doing.    I  always  sympathise 
with   St.   Peter  on  a  mountain  top;    I  want  to  build 
tabernacles. 

.u  !l  ^rVf  "''  ^'  °"''  ^'"'  '^^  ^'^  '°"g"«  °f  the  sea 
that  looks  like  a  river,  up  which  we  have  passed  in  the 
steamship,  occupies  its  narrow  submerged  valley  and 
extends  to  the  right  to  its  visible  termination  at  Dyea 
Across  It,  rise  mountains  as  lofty  as  that  on  which  we 
stand  and  the  basin  within  their  shoulders  and  sum- 
mits  holds  a  vast  snow-field.  From  a  low  place  in  the 
rim  of  that  basin  there  is  detached  towards  us  a  small 
blue-white  glacier,  which  melts  half-way  down  the  steep 


Mil 


' 


12  SNOW-FIELDS  AND  GLACIERS 

mountainside  and  dissolves  itself  into  a  number  of  glit- 
tering rills  that  stand  out  like  white  pencifmarks  against 
the  dark  moss  on  their  way  to  the  salt  water  below. 
But  the  great  mass  of  the  snow  is  discharged  in  the  op- 
posite direction,  for  this  snow-field,  one  judges,  is  one 
of  the  many  gathering  basins  of  the  Muir  Glacier,  that 
mighty  river  of  ice,  twenty-Pve  miles  wide  just  below  the 
confluence  of  its  chief  tributaries,  which,  by  John  Muir's 
estimate,  contains  as  much  ice  as  all  the  eleven  hundred 
Swiss  glaciers  combined.  "Though  apparently  motion- 
less as  the  mountains,  it  flows  on  forever,"*  writes  that 
Grand  Old  Man  of  tlic  American  mountains,  the  earliest 
pioneer  and  explorer  of  the  orography  and  glaciography 
of  these  coasts,  who  has  recently  gone  from  the  lofty 
heights  with  which  he  was  so  reverently  familiar  on 
earth,  to  wander  amongst  the  mountains  of  the  Delect- 
able Land. 

From  below,  the  snow-field  is  invisible,  and  as  the 
basin  reveals  itself  to  us  only  when  we  rise  almost  to 
its  level,  so  would  all  the  tops  of  all  the  mountains  we 
have  seen  along  these  hundreds  of  leagues  of  travel, 
reveal  similar  basins  which  they  surround  and  guard, 
could  we  stand  at  similar  advantage  to  them.  These 
are  the  vast  reservoirs  of  the  snow,  and  the  glaciers 
along  this  coast  exist  because  every  winter  the  moun- 
tain basins  receive  more  snow  than  is  melted  in  the 
summer.  The  constantly  superimposed  and  aggregatmg 
weight  compresses  the  nethermost  layers  of  snow  to 
ice,  and  then  forces  that  ice  down  through  whatever 

*  "Travels  in  Alaska,"  p.  264  (Houghton,  Mifflin,  1915). 


I 


THE  SKAGWAY  RIVER  ,, 

readiest  channels  of  descent  it  can  find,  cutting  those 
channels  out  age  by  age,  deeper  and  deeper,  g'indin! 
the.r  rock  beds  and  rock  sides  to  powder  and  thu  ^r  d 

6  k    cd  .cy.    Here  is  the  whole  story  of  the  glaciers 

aj^a  glance,  comprehensible  as  it  neverTan  be  frorbe! 

Turning  to  the  right,  and  perhaps  descending  a  little 
to  ga,n  the  full  view,  there  lies  the  valley  of  the  Skag^  ' 
R.ver,  the  nver  itself  a  tiny  thread  visible  on^  here^nd 

over  the  tidal  «ats  of  the  del^a^^  ;b?C;ar  f  Z 

much  el  e  at  Skagway,  so  much  else  that  we  shall  see 
on  our  mland  journey,  merely  reminiscent  of  bylone 
commercial  activity.  oygone 

of  i"°'''"f  "P  '*"'  ^''^g^^y  ^^"-^y.  we  see  the  route 
of  the  railway  on  which  we  shall  presently  rise  out  of 
.t,  and  the  shoulders  of  the  barrier  ridge  tha    must  be 
surmounted  ere  the  vallev  nf  tU,  ■  .    ■ 
be  reached.  ^       '^'  '"*"'°^  ^""''y  "" 

memories°"of''tV'""''' '"""'''  °""  ^''^  '"°""^-'-  that 
memories  of  the  great  migration  of  twenty  years  aeo 

Th    trav  lleT   Tk  -^  T"'  '^«'"  *°  ""^^  '"  "P^" 

town  r      M       T^^  "'"'^  '^  ''"^  the  remains  of  the 
town  the  gold-seekers  of  the  Great  Stampede  built,  and 


i 

i 


,^  THE  PIONEER  TRAIL 

a  few  miles  farther  up  the  Lynn  Canal,  at  its  actual 
termination  which  we  saw  from  the  mountam  top,  he 
the  remains  of  another  town,  now  quite  deserted;  but 
Dyea  was  a  busy  populous  place  when  the  Chilkoot 
Pass  was  a  rival  gateway  to  the  White  Pass. 

I   have  often   purposed   crossing  the   mountams  on 
foot  from  Dyea  as  the  pioneers  did,  following  the  traces 
of  their  track  and  seeing  for  n.yself  the  difficulties  they 
surmounted.     It   would   be   an   exceedingly   interestmg 
detour  and  in  fine  weathei  it  need  not  be  more  than  a 
pleasant  two  days'  excursion,  reaching  the  railway  at 
Lake  Bennett  where  the  boats  used  to  be  built  and  the 
water  trave.  begun,  but  on  my  journeys  I  have  foolishly 
allowed  myself  to  be  deterred  therefrom  by  the  intima- 
tion that  it  would  involve  missing  the  lower  river  steam- 
boat, and  so  have  hurried  on-to  kick  my  heels  for  a 
week  in  Dawson.    To  the  vigorous  tourist  with  strength 
of  mind  enough  to  ignore  all  that  is  told  him  about 
steamboat  connections,  it  is  commended  as  an  attractive 
variation  of  the  accustomed  route  with  most  noble  views 
of  mountains  and  glaciers,  and  the  long  river-like  sea 
channel  deep  down  at  the  bottom  of  everything. 

Even  from  the  railway  train  the  traces  of  the 
pioneers  are  evident.  There,  winding  along  below  us 
may  be  seen  the  trail  their  feet  beat  out  in  the  moss, 
the  rude  bridges  they  built  as  the  trail  crossed  and  re- 
crossed  the  mountain  streams,  the  remains  of  the  road- 
house  just  below  the  start  of  the  steep  ascent.  We  are 
whisked  along  and  do  but  catch  glimpses,  but  they  suf- 
fice to  conjure  up  a  vision  of  heavily  laden  men  toiling 


LAKE  BENNETT  ,. 

ht„v  ^r'^'^T'^  """l"  »heir  burdens  but  their  heart 
buoyed  with  the  expectation  of  wealth. 

The  summit  and  the  international  boundary  are 
crossed  at  the  same  time,  md  proceeding  dowT  thi 
gentler  slopes  of  the  Canadian  side  of  the  range  we  Ire 
^ready  m  the  Yukon  watershed,  and  within  a  fel  mis  ^ 

ht  fl  .1'  ^'^"""'-  ^'^"''"^"^  Schwatka  gave 
h  s  lake  and  the  one  just  above  it,  Lindeman,  the  names 
hey  bear.  It  was  on  Lake  Bennett  that  Schwatka  c.  n- 
tructed  and  launched  the  raft  on  which  he  made  a 
famous  voyage  more  than  half-way  down  the  Yukon. 

Lake   BenlZT^'  '"  ^  ''"'"^"  «^°^"P''")  --^ 
Lake   Bennett    (for  James   Gordon   Bennett)    are   the 

ZTu  T  '^"'°"-  ''"  ^^''^  «--«  '^^  ^-es  o 
the  gold-seekers  are  thick.  The  town  of  Bennett  stands 
on  the  shore  of  the  lake,  completely  deserted,  a  church 
with  a  tower  and  sp.re  amongst  the  abandoned  build- 
■ngs.    The  railway  killed  this  place,  for  until  the  railway 

Yukon  and  would  be  still,  and  the  railway  would  end 
here  but  for  the  three  and  a  half  miles  of  obstructbn 
wh.ch  the  Miles  Caiion  and  the  Whitehorse  Rapds 
constitute.  Steamboats  plied  on  the  lake  and  down  the 
nmety-five  miles  of  lake  and  river  to  the  caiion  in  th 
«ry  years  of  the  Klondike  rush.  Indeed  when  the 
railway  rendered  this  steamboat  service  unprofitable 
^eoats  were  taken  down  through  cai5on  and  rapid,  to 
VVh  tehorse  and  were  used  on  the  Yukon,  though  it  would 
have  been  practically  impossible  for  them  to  return 


ii 


i6 


MISSIONS  TO  THE  NATIVES 


The  head  of  Lake  Bennett  is  but  fifteen  miles  from 
the  summit  of  Dyea  Pass,  whence  the  first  trickling 
tributaries  of  the  Yukon  arise.    The  great  river  is  thus 
unique  amongst  the  great  rivers  of  the  world,  as  Ogilvie 
points  out  in  his  "Early  Days  on  the  Yukon"*  (a  book 
full   of  information  and   interest),  in  being  navigable 
within  easy  sight  of  its  ultimate  source,  to  its  mouth, 
a  distance  of  twenty-five  hundred  miles,  save  for  the 
three  and  a  half  miles  aforesaid;   and  many  a  raft  and 
rude  boat  of  whipsawed  lumber  passed  through  them, 
as  well  as  the  steamboats  that  used  to  ply  above  them. 
At  the  foot  of  Lake  Bennett  lies  the  little  town  of 
Caribou  Crossing  and  in  its  near  neighbourhood  is  a 
considerable  Indian  boarding-school  conducted  by  the 
Church  of  England.     Since  this  is  the  beginning  of  mis- 
sionary work  amongst  the  natives  of  the  interior  coun- 
try, it  may  interest  the  reader  to  know  that  along  the 
whole  of  the  Canadian  Yukon  that  work  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  English  Church,  and  that  as  soon  as  the  boundary 
is  passed  and  we  are  in  Alaska  again,  the  work  is  taken 
up  by  the  other  branch  of  the  Anglican  Communion,  the 
American  "Episcopal"  Church,  and  by  it  exclusively 
continued  for  another  seven  hundred  miles  of  the  river, 
or  until  Tanana  is  reached,  after  which  it  is  divided  be- 
tween the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Russian,  and  the  Episcopal 
Churches,  they  alone  of  all  religious  bodies  having  any 
work  amongst  the  natives  of  the  interior. 

So  we  have  come  to  the  waters  of  the  Yukon,  and  a 
ride  of  a  few  more  hours,  very  tame  compared  with  the 
•Otuwa:  Thorbum  and  Abbott,  1913. 


'111 


m 


I 


DISTANCES  ON  THE  YUKON  ,7 

excitement  ot  crossing  the  range,  will  bring  us  to  White- 
horse  where  we  shall  take  shipping  again.  One  hundred 
and  ten  m.les  of  rai  s  has  brought  us  from  salt  water  to 
fresh   and  we  launch  ourselves  for  a  journey  of  twenty- 

heart  of  Alaska  to  salt  water  once  more. 

Distances  on  the  Yukon 

accepted  ,wen,y.,„„  hundr"  d  mM„  of  nrihl,  l'  '"tV"^  it'  '""""""'y 
for  there  I.  a  stretch  of  but  r,Zv\!.Z  I'  '"'="'  ^'°"'  Whitehorsej- 
Discrepancies  like  this  wil  be  Z^d  ^r  "  "^  Z""  '""'  ''"««"  'h™. 
that  any  one  knows  he^x" c.  ieZh  „f  .  "  '^l^."'  '  "'"  "<"  >»«"= 
of  any  river  ?-how  i  it  de  e  „ 3  ,  is  htr""-  ^^"  'I  ""  '»"  l'"«"> 
takes  the  axis  of  the  river    haT  U  to  .1  J  ""'?'"'  '"''  '    Schwatka 

but  the  steamboats  d7"ot  t 'If/j  ^ 'r,,'"":;  ""=  f?"  "''''■"'  "'  ''• 

the  other  and  always  on  the  outer  eZ  J  r  ''^""'  ''^  ""«  "'<''  to 

fore,  if  Schw.tka's  es"imatrh  '  j  '""'  ''"«  '°  'I"  '"'■k-  There- 
river  front  ,ts  he  d  to  ri„th  t^a?  I  T/  T  "^  •""''  ''<'"''  «h^ 
Schwatka's  estimate  o  naZb  lt,7i,  t  '''.'  """i"  '""''  '"«"'• 
miles.  Dall  estimates  the  dil^^nce  ol' F^tt  Yuk™  "oTht  T'  '.''■"^■"^ 
hundred  and  six  miles;  the  ste  mhmt  .™„  '"„".'"  ,™  mouth  at  nine 
eighty.  Again,  if  di.,t  nee  ,  vXd  "  .oT"/  ""V  '  '""  ''""'''«'  '"^ 
it  will  differ  with  different  craf  and  w-7|iffer,^  h  "'"  '";'"  «""«'• 
tance  travelled  goms  up  the  river  h,  7  l^  r  •  ""''  ""'"  "'"''ly  if  ^i*- 
gasolene  launch  ope^rated  by"  h"  writer 'd'  '"' !"""}"•  "■«  tunnel-stemed 
and  can  skirt  sand-bars  in  si  k  Z"l"  it^ad  o7  "b'T  '"^t"  "^  """ 
around  the  curves.    Again,  when  the  riv.^rh  "u'"""*  '•"  "channel" 

chatjnels.  which  one  sholld  be  Taken  -'he  007°,"  ""u"  f  *""  "  <'''«" 
So  the  reader  must  expect  to  heL' =„J         }    '  "'  '■"  ''«'««t.' 

£r':s^^dS£S-  ^^- --"=::  ^« 

-^ep.„aterorsteamra-te^^-»^— ^t^ 


'  I 

I  ||i  I 
1 1 


.Vi 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  IPPER  YUKON 

Now  that  the  adjacent  copper-mines  are  in  opera- 
tion, Whitehorse  has  promise  of  prosperity  that  could 
never  come  to  it  merely  as  the  starting-point  of  Yukon 
navigation:   indeed  as  the  town  has  stood  a  number  of 
years  it  has  presented  conclusive  evidence  that  a  rail- 
way does  not  necessarily  bring  business  and  that  even 
the  terminus  of  a  railway  may  be  a  very  dull  place. 
The  railway  rates  across  the  mountains  are  so  enor- 
mously high  that  several  attempts  have  been  made  to 
compel  a  reduction,  but  since  it  is  an  international  road, 
with  one  end  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States  and 
the  other  in  Canada,  it  is  not  easy  for  either  government 
to  handle  it.    It  must  of  rourse  be  borne  in  mind,  if  one 
would  be  just  to  the  White  Pass  Railway  Company, 
that  the  Yukon  Territory  and  interior  Alaska  export 
nothing  but  gold-dust,  which  does  not  demand  freight- 
cars  for  its  transportation;  the  "haul"  is  only  one  way, 
and  the  trains  that  bring  in  supplies  of  merchandise  of 
all  kinds  go  back  empty— saving  the  recent  output  of 
copper  ore.    It  must  also  be  remembered  that  all  the 
winter  through  the  road  is  operated  at  a  great  loss.    It 
is  only  during  the  season  of  navigation,  and  that  is  less 
than  four  months  in  the  year,  that  there  is  any  freight 
traffic  at  all,  or  any  passenger  traffic  to  speak  of,  yet 


WHITEHORSK  ,^ 

the  road  i,  kept  open  all  the  winter  at  great  expense 

be  readily  believed,  that  so  great  was  the  press  of  traffic 
du....g  the  building  o.  the  road,  and  so  great  the  demand 
lor  .t8  service,  at  any  price,  that  section  by  section,  as 
It  was  bmlt  us  receipts  paid  for  its  construction,  and 
that  for  the  first  year  or  two  after  its  completion  it  paid 
over  and  again  for  itself.  Of  late  years,  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  Its  revenues  have  very  considerably  decreased  with 
the  decay  of  mining  on  the  upper  river. 

There  is  little  to  say  of  Whitehorse:    it  has  a  bar- 
racks of  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police,  two  or  three 
struggling  churches,  the  usual  row  of  shops  along  the 
water-front-and    two    hotels.      The    hotels    have   one 
standing  joke.     They   live   mainly  upon   tourists,   and 
upon  residents  of  the  two  territories  going  and  coming, 
and  very  few  people  are  guests  of  more  than  one  night 
m  the  morning,  when  time  for  payment  has  arrived 
and  room  rent  and  meals  have  been  reckoned  up,  comes' 
the  question    "Did  you  take  a  bath  .V'    The  lady  from 
the  East  bridles  and  perhaps  blushes  at  the  question 
and  answers,  "Why  of  course  I  did."    "Another  dollar 
tnen,    is  the  comment  on  the  answer. 

The  last  time  I  was  in  Whitehorse  a  train  full  of 
hungry  tourists  had  been  deposited  in  the  town  in  the 
evening,  the  steamboat  sailing  being  set  for  the  next 
morning,  and  when,  after  attending  to  some  affairs  I 
went  to  one  after  the  other  of  the  two  restaurants,  both 
were  crowded,  so  I  waited  awhile  and  walked  the  streets 
tUl  the  congestion  should   be  relieved.     When   I   had 


ill 


PROBLEMS  FOR  TOURISTS 


I  ■ 


secured  a  table,  came  a  Swedish  waitress  with  rudi- 
mentary English  and  a  bill  of  fare.  "Roast  beef,"  I 
ordered.  "Roast  beef  is  all  out,"  she  said.  "Then  I'll 
take  roast  mutton,"  I  said.  "Roast  mutton  is  all  out," 
she  responded.  "Then  what  has  that  cook  got.'"  I 
inquired.  "I  don't  believe  he  ain't  got  nutting,"  she 
replied.  There  was  no  use  asking  why  she  had  not  told 
me  so  at  first;  I  simply  went  to  the  other  restaurant. 
Here  it  seemed  there  was  plenty,  and  I  ordered  some 
baked  salmor.  "Full  order,  or  a  starter?"  queried  the 
brisk  youth,  indigenous  I  judged,  but  surely  western. 
Now  I  had  been  living  and  travelling  all  the  winter  in 
the  East,  and  that  is  the  only  excuse  I  can  make  for  my 
next  question,  "Is  this  table  d'hote  or  a  la  carte?"  The 
youth  gazed  at  me,  troubled  for  a  moment,  and  then  he 
answered  with  a  smile:  "Now  you  sure  got  me;  the  boss 
is  gone  to  a  picnic  and  you  sure  got  me."  Then  the 
meaning  of  "  starter  "  came  back  to  me,  and  rhore  ashamed 
of  my  question  than  the  boy  was  of  his  ignorance,  I  be- 
gan an  excellent  meal  with  some  very  excellent  baked 
salmon — than  which  nothing  is  more  delicious  when 
first  it  comes  in  season.  It  is  neither  table  d'hote  nor 
d  la  carte.  You  may  make  your  dinner  of  beef  or  mutton 
or  whatever  meat  may  be  on  the  bill  of  fare,  and  you 
may  have  a  small  portion  of  fish  as  well,  if  you  like;  or, 
if  you  be  hungry  for  salmon,  you  may  make  your  whole 
meal  of  it;  hence  the  inquiry  whether  you  wish  a  "full 
order"  or  merely  a  "starter"  of  fish.  The  charge  will 
be  the  same  in  either  case.  But  it  is  curious  how  some 
people  chance  to  remain  in  one's  mind  while  hundreds 


FASCINATING  ISOLATION 


2t 


SnH  I  u  ''?'''''  °^  '"y  """^  ^ho  served  me  with 
f^d  all  that  w,„ter  and  spring  that  I  was  at  hotel  after 
hotel  m  the  Eastern  States,  but  this  bustling  youth  with 
h.s    ranlcgnorance  and  his  engaging  smife  «  WhTtl 

trad    17'    ''°"  ""'■    '  '"'"''  '"^  -"-  ■'-^  •'-wn 

H.Vt.^  .      ■    .Z  ^  morning  were  much  ad- 

I  ecall  equally  well  was  a  girl  in  Colorado  fourteen  or 
fi   een  years  ago     I  do  not  remember  the  name  of  the 

plZr\:V  ""  T"  ""'"'''  """  ^°  '^^  Spanish 

dav  ir  /  .1  '°'"'  •'°^"  ^"'"  ^•'^  *°P  °f  »''«'"  that 
day  t.red  and  hungry,  and  when  my  meal  was  done  and 

ak  '1^  ^  '■  ■  '  '''''  '''  '"'  ^  <>-«"'  f-  ^he  had 
heH  P"'";;"  •'"  attendance.  "What's  this  for?" 
he  demanded,  holding  it  in  her  open  palm.    "Why  it's 

moment  looking  me  straight  in  the  eye,  and  tL  said, 
1 11  ask  mother,"  and  withdrew  for  that  purpose  while 

"MoTer'  '"""'•  „'^"""^  '''  —''  -d  sai 
Mother  says  it's  all  right,  and  I  thank  you."    Think 

however,  of  a  waiter  in  a  restaurant  who  actually  dTd 

not  know  what  a  tip  was !    I  am  afraid  they  are  grown 

more   sophisticated,   even   in   rural   Colorado,   by  Z 

n7th    V  r""!^  '''  '''  ''  "^"  -'l-tood  in  Ilaska 

travel,  .t  has  become  as  essential  a  lubricant  on  this 
river  as  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

The  fairly  comfortable  little  steamboat  in  which  we 


I, 


I' 

I'M 


M'li 


(1 


22  MOUNTAIN  SCENERY  ON  YUKON 

are  berthed  pushes  her  way  up  the  river  with  a  laden 
barge  ahead  of  her  for  some  hundreds  of  yards  ere  she 
can  find  room  to  turn  around  and  put  her  barge's  nose 
down-stream,  and  then  we  are  launched  on  our  voyage. 
The  mountains  rise  on  either  hand.  All  the  way  up  the 
Inside  Passage  we  have  wondered  what  was  on  the  other 
side  of  the  wall  of  mountains  beneath  which  we  sailed; 
then  we  crossed  them  and  found  out.  On  the  other  side 
are  simply  more  mountains;  and  all  through  this  Yukon 
Territory  and  far  beyond  into  Alaska,  we  never  get  away 
from  them,  mountains  to  right  and  mountains  to  left, 
mountains  whether  one  looks  ahead  or  astern;  and 
should  one  climb  the  highest  of  them  anywhere  one  chose, 
and  secure  its  wider  view,  still  more  and  more  moun- 
tains would  rise  before  one's  eyes.  Of  course,  mountains 
imply  valleys,  and  the  country  is  seamed  with  them, 
but  in  general  they  are  narrow  ^nd  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  it  is  at  one  steep  angle  or  another.  It  is  a  rugged, 
broken,  precipitous  country,  well-wooded  with  small 
coniferous  timber,  and  the  water  of  the  river  that  winds 
amongst  the  forested  crags  and  bluffs  is  clear  as  crystal. 
Here  are  all  the  elements  of  picturesqueness,  and  indeed 
I  think  there  can  be  few  more  picturesque  streams  in 
the  world  than  the  upper  Yukon. 

Slipping  along  with  the  combined  speed  of  the  swift 
current  and  the  boat's  wheel  we  should  make  fifteen 
or  sixteen  miles  an  hour  were  it  not  for  the  barge,  which, 
nearly  doubling  the  length  of  our  craft,  gives  us  pause 
as  we  turn  the  sharp  corners  of  the  narrow  channel; 
and  he  who  is  interested  in  the  details  of  such  navigation 


JACK-KNIFING  23 

will  take  pleasure  in  watching  the  skilful  handling  of 
the  boat;    the  reversing  of  the  engines  that  she  come 
down  slowly  to  the  turn,  the  nose  of  the  barge  perhaps 
just  on  the  point  of  touching  a  bar,  the  sharp  jingle  of 
bells,  the  immediate  spinning  of  the  paddle-wheel  in  the 
opposite  direction,  and  the  swerve  right  across  the  river 
as  the  steam  steering-wheel  is  comcidentally  thrown  over. 
When   the   channel   is  further  constricted   by   low 
water,  the  operation  of  "jack-knifing"  is  still  more  in- 
teresting.    Sometimes  the  available  space  is  too  small 
for  the  length  of  boat  and  barge  to  be  turned  as  one; 
then  the  barge  is  partially  loosed  from  one  of  the  two 
cables  that  bind  it  to  the  steamboat,  so  that  it  drifts 
by  the  force  of  the  current  to  an  angle  with  the  latter 
such  as  the  blade  of  an  open  knife  makes  with  the  handle 
when  one  begins  to  close  it,  and  in  this  relation  to  one 
another  boat  and  barge  are  able  to  pass  the  turn;  where- 
upon the  cable  is  drawn  tight  again,  and  perhaps  in  a 
few  minutes  more  the  other  cable   may   be   similarly 
loosed  to  "jack-knife"  round  a  curve  in  the  opposite 
direction. 

Thus,  with  really  admirable  skill,  now  drifting  with 
the  current,  now  actually  for  a  few  minutes  going  up- 
stream against  it,  now  with  "full  speed  ahead"  adding 
motive  power  and  current  together,  we  pass  thirty  or 
forty  miles  of  narrow  river  and  come  to  the  ticklish 
entrance  of  Lake  Lebarge. 

This  lake,  thirty  miles  long,  surrounded  by  bold 
rugged  mountains,  was  named  for  Michael  Le  Barge, 
like   Ketchum  and   Kennicott,  of  the  Western  Union 


24 


LAKE  LEBARGE 


t. 


^i 

'l(!l 


Telegraph  Company's  explorers  of  1866 — of  which  ex- 
ploration more  will  be  said  later.  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  from  Dall's  account  whether  Le  Barge  ever  saw 
this  lake  or  not.  Ogilvie  says  he  did  not,  but  that  the 
account  he  gave  at  second  hand  from  an  Indian  was  so 
exact  that  his  name  was  afterwards  given  to  it.  Ken- 
nicott,  Le  Barge's  chief,  died  of  heart-disease  at  Nulato 
without  apparently  leaving  any  narrative  of  his  work, 
and  Dall,  who  was  never  above  Fort  Yukon,  has  only 
vague  notions  of  the  upper  river.  Dall  put  the  names 
Kennicott  and  Ketchum  on  two  lakes  which  he  describes 
as  the  sources  of  the  Yukon,  and  I  found  it  impossible 
to  tell  if  they  were  th*-  lakes  that  Schwatka  afterwards 
named  Lindeman  ai.i  Bennett  or  not,  or  if  one  of  them 
were  this  Lake  Lebarge  (for  Dall  thought  Selkirk  the 
head  of  navigation).  However,  the  matter  is  of  interest 
only  to  those  eager  to  know  all  that  is  to  be  known  about 
the  early  history  of  this  country,  with  whom  I  must  class 
myself,  and  I  trust  that  I  may  be  pardoned  this  and 
similar  excursions  into  the  minutiae  of  geographical 
nomenclature,  for  at  the  worst,  the  reader's  right  of 
skipping  is  blessedly  inalienable,  like  the  right  <  f  going 
to  sleep  during  the  sermon  in  church. 

Lake  Lebarge  has  other  interest;  it  is  one  of  the 
prime  features  of  the  Yukon  River;  it  is  more,  it  is  one 
of  the  prime  factors  of  Yukon  navigation.  Let  us  take 
a  few  minutes  while  the  steamboat  enters  the  lake  and 
the  prospect  broadens  to  the  wide  stretch  of  water  with 
its  rim  of  rocky  mountains,  to  consider  this  matter. 

The  Yukon  River  opens  about  the  loth  of  May,  and 


A 


LATE    CE  IN  LAKE  LEBARGE  25 

within  a  few  days  is  clear  of  ice  from  the  lower  end  of 
Lake  Lebarge  to  its  mouth.  But  the  lalie,  having  little 
current  and  a  narrow  outlet,  holds  its  ice  for  nearly  three 
weeks  longer.  Interposing  itself  between  the  naviga- 
tion and  railway  head  at  Whitehorse  and  the  open  water, 
it  forbids  the  use  of  the  river  to  passengers  and  freight 
coming  from  the  outside  for  three  weeks  after  the  river 
is  free  to  the  whole  interior  of  Alaska  and  most  of  the 
Yukon  Territory.  Now  let  us  go  down  to  the  mouth 
of  the  river.  In  Bering  S-a  also,  the  ice  holds,  or  is  pres- 
ent in  such  dangerous  quantity  and  form  that  ocean- 
going vessels  cannot  approach  St.  Michael  until  well 
into  June;  and  it  has  been  as  late  as  the  4th  of  July  be- 
fore the  first  vessel  reached  that  place.  So  there  is  the 
curious  circumstance  that  although  the  river  for  up- 
ward of  twenty-one  hundred  miles  of  its  course  is  open 
and  free,  it  is  yet  closed  at  its  head  and  closed  at  its 
mouch. 

Once  this  situation  is  grasped  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand why  in  the  heyday  of  traffic  when  the  railway 
was  built,  it  was  not  extended  to  the  foot  of  Lake  Le- 
barge—or  say  thirty  miles  farther  to  the  Hutalinqua 
Landing,  which  would  cut  out  the  swift  and  narrow 
and  dangerous  Thirty  Mile  River  connecting  the  two. 
I  suppose  the  railway  company  felt  sure  that  it  had  the 
whip-hand  of  the  country  anyway,  and  would  not  spend 
the  necessary  money  to  make  its  dominance  sure.  It 
woula  have  given  an  open  season  three  weeks  longer, 
and  those  three  ear'y  weeks  when  the  people  of  the  in- 
terior, having  passed  the  long  winter,  are  most  anxious 


l|:i 


§ 


llW 


i 


m 


26 


SPRING  ON  THE  YUKON 


■fl- 


u 


1' 


'I 


V 

i. 


for  fresh  things  from  the  outside,  and  will  pay  almost 
any  price  for  them.  It  would  have  been  such  an  im- 
mense advantage  in  its  competition  with  the  lower  river 
route  that  it  would  probably  have  brought  the  monopoly 
of  the  traffic  into  its  hands  long  before  it  came.  The 
time  is  passed  now,  and  with  declining  freights  and  the 
government  railway  building  to  Fairbanks,  will  probably 
never  return,  but  it  seems  a  glaring  instance  of  a  lost 
commercial  opportunity. 

Moreover,  this  three  weeks  or  month  that  the  navi- 
gation of  the  river  is  free  to  residents  of  the  interior  and 
barred  to  people  from  the  outside,  is,  in  my  opinion,  far 
and  away  the  most  delightful  part  of  the  open  season. 
The  snow  still  lingers  on  the  mountain  tops,  great  masses 
of  pure  white  cloud  roll  upon  the  blue  sky;  there  is  a 
freshness  and  vividness  of  vegetation  that  belong  to 
this  period  alone;  every  open  space  is  carpeted  with 
short-lived  flowers,  the  reeking  arctic  moss  itself  bursts 
into  myriads  of  brilliant  blooms;  under  the  strong  en- 
couragement of  the  perpetual  daylight  and  almost  per- 
petual sunshine,  every  green  thing  grows  with  a  joyous, 
eager  celerity  that  shoots  up  blades  and  unrolls  leaves 
visibly  under  our  watching  eyes.  The  summer  heats 
are  not  yet  come,  nor  the  swarms  of  mosquitoes — ^they 
hold  their  densest  battalions  in  reserve  until  Lake  Le- 
barge  "goes  out"  and  the  unacclimatised  blood  comes 
in.  The  waters  are  alive  with  wild  fowl,  most  of  which 
will  presently  resume  their  interrupted  migration  to 
the  arctic  coasts. 

Spending  the  greater  part  of  every  summer  in  travel 


f. 


DANGERS  OF  LAKE  NAVIGATION  27 

upon  the  water  as  I  do,  this  earliest  navigation  I  find 
much  the  most  pleasant  of  all. 

Some  small  perishable  freights  in  haste  come  down 
by  water  from  Whitehorse,  are  sledded  over  the  rotting 
me Itmg  ice  of  the  lake  and  launched  again  on  the  Thirty 
Mde  River;  and  thus  the  first  fresh  eggs  and  fruit  and 
the  first  green  vegetables  come  to  Dawson  and  Fair- 
banks and  are  peddled  along  the  river  generally,  two 
or  three  weeks  before  the  first  through  steamboats  arrive 
and  SIX  weeks  or  so  before  anything  can  be  raised  from' 
our  northern  gardens;  for  it  is  not  considered  safe  to 
plant  anything  along  the  Yukon  until  the  ice  has  gone 
out;  mdeed  many  people  will  not  put  seed  or  set  into 
the  ground  until  the  first  of  June. 

Like  most  mountain  lakes,   Lebarge  is  subject  to 
sudden  violent  storms,  and  it  is  surprising  how  rough 
and  choppy  it  can  become.     A  number  of  deaths  by 
drowning  occurred  in  the  early  days  of  travel,  for  a  man 
cast  into  these  northern  waters,  lake  or  river,  has  little 
chance  for  his  life.    They  are  so  cold  that  the  body  be- 
comes numb  and  the  muscles  paralysed.     Moreover,  as 
a  rule,  they  do  not  give  up  their  dead.    Their  tempera- 
ture IS  below  that  at  which  rapid  decomposition  takes 
place,  and  the  gases  of  putrefaction,  which  in  most  waters 
raise  the  bodies  of  the  drowned  to  the  surface,  are  not 
formed.    Every  year  yet,  the  Yukon  and  its  tributaries 
take  no  inconsiderable  toll  of  human  life,  and  perhaps 
nothing  but  an  empty  boat  half  full  of  water  drifting 
down  the  stream  will  remain  to  arouse  fears  which  sub- 
sequently prove  to  be  well-founded. 


: 


'Si 


I '» i 
I'll 

m 


!«l 


it 


Ml** 

it 


t 


28 


CANADIAN  POLICE  REGULATION 


1^ 


li 


Here  a  reference  may  be  made  to  the  admirable 
system  introduced  by  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police 
when  first  they  entered  the  Territory  and  maintained 
ever  since.  Every  small  boat  that  leaves  Whitehorse 
has  a  number  plainly  painted  on  its  bows,  and  that 
number  together  with  a  description  of  the  occupants  is 
telegraphed  to  all  the  police  posts  on  the  river.  If  three 
men  should  start  from  Whitehorse,  for  instance,  and 
only  two  arrive  at  Selkirk  or  Dawson,  they  must  give 
account  of  the  third,  and  should  there  be  any  suspicious 
circumstances,  are  detained  until  the  matter  is  cleared 
up.  In  this  way  and  by  a  corresponding  trail  regula- 
tion in  the  winter,  and  with  the  steamboat  lists,  the  police 
keep  strict  account  of  every  man  who  enters  and  every 
man  who  leaves  the  Yukon  Territory,  and  it  has  been 
a  great  help  in  securing  the  remarkable  record  for  the 
efficient  administration  of  the  law  and  the  suppression 
of  crime  which  that  organisation  has  made  for  itself 
here.  Midway  down  the  lake  the  west  shore  becomes 
particularly  fine,  with  great  towers  and  buttresses  of 
red  rock.  On  a  clear  still  day  their  reflection  in  the 
water  is  very  beautiful,  but  the  whole  shore  of  the  lake, 
east  and  west,  is  rock-bound  and  rugged  and  highly  pic- 
turesque. 

The  steamboat  shoots  out  of  Lake  Lebarge  into  the 
swift  channel  of  the  Thirty  Mile  River,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  one  of  the  most  dangerous  stretches  of 
the  whole  Yukon,  for  it  is  narrow  and  tortuous  and 
studded  with  sunken  rocks.  First  and  last  many  a  steam- 
boat has  punched  a  hole  in  its  bottom  here,  many  a 


SAFETY  RECORD  ON  YUKON  39 

scow  has  been  wrecked.  Whenever  we  of  the  middle 
river  hear  of  a  steamboat  coming  to  grief  above  Daw- 
son, we  ask  almost  as  a  matter  of  course:  "  In  the  Thirty 
Mile?"  Fortunately,  so  far  as  life  is  concerned,  the 
water  is  shallow,  and  as  a  rule  steamboats  meeting  with 
such  misfortune  are  able  to  patch  the  holes  and  prcn 
ceed. 

This  and  other  references  to  accidents  on  the  Yukon 
must  not  be  taken  to  imply  that  the  navigation  of  the 
river  is  in  any  general  sense  dangerous,  for  it  is  not     I 
cannot  recall  ever  hearing  of  the  accidental  loss  of  a 
steamboat  passenger's  life.     Most  of  the  fatalities  are 
amongst  those  who  travel  in  small  open  boats,  though 
from  time  to  time  the  steamboats  lose  a  deck-hand     I 
do  r  ot  think  there  can  be  a  river  in  the  world,  used  as 
much  as  this  is,  that  has  any  better  record  for  the  safety 
of  Its  steamboat  traffic.    And  for  my  part  I  am  convinced 
that  winter  and  summer,  on  the  water  and  on  the  trail 
life  IS  much  safer  in  the  north  than  it  is,  let  us  say   in 
the  streets  of  New  York:    I  think  the  most  dangerous 
crossing  of  the  Yukon  is  far  less  hazardous  than  the 
crossmg  of  Broadway.    I  often  feel  that  I  am  taking  my 
life  m  my  hands  when  I  cross  from  curb  to  curb  of  those 
streets,  seething  with  swift-gliding  machines,  not  more 
merciful   and   far   more   incalculably   erratic   than   the 
strongest  force  of  water.    The  safety  of  city  dwellers  is 
a  safety  they  fondly  imagine  to  themselves,  and  the 
insecurity  of  the  wilderness  in  their  minds  is  but  its 
corollary,  plus  a  plebeian  dread  of  the  unfrequented  and 
unfamiliar.     The  only  advantage  the  city  has  is  this, 


\r\ 


30 


YUKON  TRIBUTARIES 


m 


that  if  an  accident  does  happen  there  is  prompter  suc- 
cour; but  in  the  wilderness  accidents  are  far  more  rare 
and  the  ordinary  condition  of  life  is  far  more  secure. 

At  the  end  of  the  Thirty  Mile  there  comes  in  on  the 
right  bank  the  first  important  tributary,  the  Teslin, 
draining  Lake  Teslin  far  to  the  south,  which  itself  has 
affluents  that  rise  near  Ptarmigan  Pass  in  the  Cassiar 
District  of  British  Columbia,  a  well-known  gold-mining 
region  which  first  drew  numbers  of  men  to  the  north, 
preceding  by  a  decade  or  two  the  excitement  of  the 
Klondike.  I  have  no  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
Teslin  country,  nor  indeed  with  any  of  the  Yukon  Terri- 
tory affluents  of  the  great  river,  but  on  the  map  it  has 
always  seemed  to  me  that  if  the  rule  should  hold  of  count- 
ing the  longest  tributary  of  a  river  as  its  true  head,  then 
these  waters  of  the  Teslin,  with  Teslin  Lake  and  the 
streams  that  drain  thereinto,  constitute  properly  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Yukon,  rather  than  those  to  which 
that  name  is  nowadays  applied. 

After  the  junction  with  the  Teslin  the  Thirty  Mile 
becomes  the  Lewes  River,  and  is  commonly  so  called 
until  the  confluence  with  the  Pelly;  so  that  the  Lewes 
and  the  Pelly  are  said  to  make  the  Yukon,  but  of  late 
years  the  name  Yukon  is  applied  in  a  general  way  to 
all  the  variously  named  stretches  of  the  river. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  tb's  Yukon  River  was 
discovered  piecemeal,  and  special  n«.nes  were  given  by 
individual  explorers  to  the  parts  they  reached,  usually 
without  any  knowledge  or  possibility  of  knowledge  that 
they  constituted   a  continuous  stream.     We  approach 


AN   EXPLORERS   PEDANTRY  31 

the  region  of  Robert  Campbell's  discoveries,  a  capable 
and  adventurous  agent  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
of  whom  more  will  be  said  later.    Coming  down  the 
Pelly  in  1842  he  named  the  river  into  which  it  flowed 
(or,  as  he  judged,  which  flowed  into  it)  after  John  Lee 
Lewes,  one  of  his  colleagues  in  the  company's  service. 
The  Big  ind  Little  Salmon  Rivers  come  in  on  the 
right  bank  shortly,  with  an  Indian  village  and  a  little 
mission  establishment  at  the  mouth  of  the  former,  and 
then  comes  an  important  tributary  on  the  left  bank, 
perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  below  the  foot  of 
Lake  Lebarge,  the  Nordenskiold,  named  by  Schwatka 
for  the  famous   Swedish  explorer  who  made  the  first 
northeast  passage  in  the  Fega  in  1878-9.     This  is  one 
of  the   few   names  given   by  Schwatka   on   the  upper 
Yukon  that  survive,  and  we  may  well  be  grateful  for 
the  desuetude  of  the  majority  of  them.    Never  was  the 
pedantry  of  exploration  better  illustrated  than  in  the 
medley  of  cosmopolitan  names  of  geographers  and  nat- 
uralists   and    ethnologists   with    which    Schwatka    dis- 
figured the  streams  and  mountains  of  the  Yukon,  some 
of  them  as  hard  to  pronounce  as  any  Inuian  name  could 
be,  and   totally  devoid   of  connection    or  significance. 
Prejevalsky  and   Richthofen  and  d'Abbadie  and  Von 
Wilczek    and    Semenow    and    Maunoir   were    doubtless 
famous  enough  in  their  generation,  and  some  of  them 
are  not  forgotten  to-day,  but  what  sense  of  fitness,  what 
sense  of  humour,  can  a  man  have  had  who  expected 
English-speaking  people  to  use  such  names  familiarly 
as  place-names .?   A  little  pains  to  have  secured  from  the 


i 


1 


m 

1:1  il  , 

i 

I 

1 14 


3» 


YUKON  CROSSING 


Indians  their  own  namea  for  the  tributary  streams  would 
have  preserved  to  us  a  nomenclature  always  appropriate, 
always  significant;  and  to  my  mind,  even  the  corrup- 
tion of  a  difficult  Indian  name  into  something  that  Eng- 
lish-speaking people  can  more  easily  pronounce,  is  far 
preferable  to  the  meaningless  exotic  names  that  have 
been  so  freely  applied  throughout  the  country.  But 
Lieutenant  Schwatka  on  his  clumsy  raft  was  in  a  hurry 
to  get  down  to  St.  Michael,  lest  he  miss  his  chance  to 
return  to  civilisation,  and  Schwatka  is  supercilious  not 
only  of  Indians  but  of  Hudson's  Bay  people  as  well,  with 
a  true  military  superciliousness. 

It  is  up  this  Nordenskiold  River  that  the  winter 
stage  route  proceeds  to  Whitehorse,  crossing  the  Yukon 
on  its  way  from  Dawson  about  twenty  miles  below  the  ■ 
confluence,  at  a  place  called  "Yukon  Crossing,"  where 
the  touriit  may  see  the  large  vehicles  on  runners  that 
are  employed,  and  the  stables  where  the  relays  of  horses 
are  kept. 

The  river  has  already  broadened  considerably  since 
the  accession  of  the  Teslin  and  the  Nordenskiold,  and 
begins  to  be  crowded  with  islands.  Indeed  the  multi- 
plicity of  islands  along  the  Yukon  is  one  of  its  char- 
acteristic features  noticed  by  every  traveller. 

A  score  or  so  of  miles  below  the  Yukon  Crossing  the 
little  settlement  of  Carmack  is  passed  on  the  left  bank, 
with  its  store  and  its  mission  and  cabins,  and  two  or 
three  miles  farther  the  Tantalus  coal-mine  is  reached, 
one  of  the  very  few  that  are  regularly  worked  on  the 
whole  course  of  the  Yukon.    Here,  it  is  quite  likely,  the 


t 


1 


FIVE  FINGER   RAPIDS  jj 

steamboat  will  take  another  barge  in  tow.  for  it  i,  from 
tim  coal-mme  that  Dawson  is  supplied.  The  name 
Tantalus  w.as  given  by  Schwatka  to  a  bold  high  bluff 
hat  the  w.nd.ngs  of  the  river  bring  again  and  again 
nto  v.ew    without,   apparently,   any   nearer  approach 

Ld  rf "'',''  ""'""•  """  ''■'  "=""^  -" 'in- 
ferred to  the  coal-mine  in  the  neighbourhood. 

We  now  approach  what  all  tourists  regard  as  the 

ch.ef  attraction   of  the   upper  river,   the   Five   Finger 

Rap.d.s,  and  their  passage,  while  quite  safe  to  careful 

navigation,  supplies  a  sufficient  measure  of  excitement 

and  sensation.    A  lava  dike  right  across  the  bed  of  the 

river  has  been  cut  through  in  several  narrow  gaps,  leav- 

■ng  the  jagged,  tree-grown  fragments  sticking  up  very 

picturesquely  as  isolated   rocks.     The  channel  used  is 

the  one  nearest  the  right  bank  and  so  strait  is  the  way 

and  so  close  does  the  steamboat  approach  the  rock  that 

■t  seems  to  the  people  on  the  upper  deck  that  if  they 

eaned  over  the  rail  and  stretched  out  a  hand  they  could 

touch  It.    The  water  boils  and  roars,  dashing  its  waves 

against  the  rocks  as  if  rebellious  at  their  restraint.    In 

going  down-stream,  one  is  swept  at  such  speed  through 

the  narrow  gut  of  the  channel  and  out  upon  reunited 

but  exacerbated  waters  that  no  more  than  a  glimpse 

s  had  ere  the  five  fingers  are  gone  and  the  tumult  and 

tossing  of  the  rapids  below  are  left  behind  also;   but  in 

gomg  up-stream  one  has  ample  time  to  observe  care- 

•  ully   the   whole   interesting   scene.     Schwatka   rightly 

judged  that  a  vessel  with  a  steam  windlass  could  pull 

herself  up  through  the  channel  we  have  come  down 


II    i 

1       4, 


•i 


111 


I 


34  A  FORTUNATE  GUESS 

and  a  permanent  cable  attached  to  a  rock  above  the 
narrow  chute  is  picked  up  by  the  steamboats  and  passed 
around  the  windlass  drum.  By  this  means,  even  with 
a  barge,  they  manage  to  get  through. 

Schwatka  called  these  rapids  the  "Rink  Rapids" 
after  "Doctor  Henry  Rink  of  Christiana,  a  well-known 
authority  on  Greenland,"  but  Greenland  is  a  long  way 
from  the  Yukon,  and  the  five  rocky  towers  sticking  up 
in  the  river  appealed  more  to  the  imagination  of  the 
early  voyageurs  than  the  erudition  of  the  Norwegian 
geographer.  Rink,  however,  must  have  his  rapids,  and 
the  name  lingering,  I  suppose,  in  the  memory  of  some 
traveller  familiar  with  Schwatka's  map,  was  saved  by 
its  brevity  and  ease  of  utterance  and  applied  to  rapids 
lower  down.  I  heard  two  ladies  discussing  the  n-me 
when  last  I  passed  through  them.  "I  don't  see  any  re- 
semblance to  a  skating-rink  here,"  one  of  them  said, 
"it's  too  rough."  "Maybe  the  waves  looked  like  skaters 
bumping  into  one  another  and  knocking  one  another 
down,"  suggested  the  other.  So  passes  the  fame  of  the 
authority  on  Greenland  and  the  copious  writer  about 
the  Eskimos. 

A  continuous,  thin  white  line  running  for  many 
miles  along  the  right  bank,  just  below  its  surface,  at- 
tracts the  attention  of  all  visitors  and  provokes  many 
inquiries.  It  is  a  deposit  of  volcanic  ash,  generally  at- 
tributed to  Mt.  Wrangel  in  the  Copper  River  country 
far  to  the  west,  presumably  because  Mt.  Wrangel  still 
smokes.  The  Canadian  geological  surveyors,  however, 
1   am  informed,   have  discovered   a   considerable  lava 


^f  ! 


?' 


Blin 


a 


Ml 


t 

1  !tti 


THE  PELLY  RIVER  35 

plug  and  evidence  of  an  exploded  crater  in  much  nearer 
mountains  to  the  east,  from  which,  in  their  judgment, 
the  eruption  of  ash  proceeded.  It  is  so  close  to  the  sur- 
face that  it  must  be  of  comparatively  recent  origin,  per- 
haps within  a  century  or  two,  and  I  have  been  told  that 
the  Indians  of  these  parts  still  transmit  tradition  con- 
cerning its  occurrence.  Certainly  it  overspread  a  wide 
area,  for  it  is  traceable,  though  not  continuously,  for 
upwards  of  an  hundred  miles.  In  places  a  double  line 
indicates  that  there  was  more  than  one  such  eruption. 

Now  comes  the  most  important  tributary  the  Yukon 
has  yet  received,  the  Pelly,  confluent  on  the  right  bank 
at  a  curious  up-stream  angle— so  important  indeed  that 
it  used  to  be  considered  the  Yukon  River  itself,  and 
"Pelly  or  Yukon  River"  still  appears  on  some  modem 
maps.  Schwatka  was  prepared  to  take  measurements 
of  the  flow  of  both  streams  to  determine  this  question, 
but,  when  he  came  to  the  confluence,  a  glance  as  he 
glided  by  convinced  him  that  measurements  were  un- 
necessary, so  considerably  did  the  Lewes  exceed. 

Robert  Campbell's  voyage  down  the  Pelly  in  1843 
has  been  referred  to.  From  a  tributary  of  the  Liard, 
he  struck  across  to  this  stream,  which  he  named  Pelly 
after  the  governor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  At 
its  mouth  he  encountered  unfriendly  Indians  and  was 
forced  to  turn  back.  I  should  like  to  see  his  own  ac- 
count of  thi.s,  but  have  had  no  opportunity.  In  1848 
he  descended  the  Pelly  again  and  built  a  fort  or  trading- 
post  opposite  the  confluence  of  the  Pelly  and  Lewes, 
caUing  it  Fort  Selkirk  after  that  Lord  Selkirk,  I  cannot 


36 


EXPERIENCES  OF  CAMPBELL 


doubt,  who  had  made  a  brave  and  philanthropic  attempt 
to  colonise  the  Red  River  country  in  the  face  of  the 
murderous  opposition  of  the  Northwestern  Fur  Com- 
pany, the  great  rival  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 
The  Chilkat  Indians,  however,  had   always  acted  as 
intermediaries  between  the  "Stick"  Indians,  as  those 
of  the  interior  were  called  because  of  the  "little  sticks" 
which  took  the  place  of  the  great  timber  of  the  coast, 
and  the  white  traders,  procuring  the  commodities  of 
the  latter  from  the  ships  that  visited  the  coast,  lind 
bartering  them  to  great  advantage  with  the  "Sticks" 
for  the  furs  of  the  interior,  of  which  the  white  man  was 
ever  in  search.    The  Chilkats  resented  Campbell's  in- 
trusion into  their  preserves  and  the  loss  of  their  very 
profitable  intermediation,  so  a  party  was  formed  that 
came  over  vne  mountains  and  swiftly  down  the  lakes 
and  streams,  and  fell  upon  Fort  Selkirk  like  a  bolt  from 
the  blue.     Campbell  and  his  companions  they  bound 
but  did  not  injure,  and  proceeded  to  the  looting  of  the 
stores  and  the  firing  of  the  buildings.     When  the  de- 
struction was   complete  they   released   their  prisoners 
and  returned  up  the  river,  and  Campbell  and  his  com- 
panions floated  down  to  Fort  Yukon,  where  Alexander 
Murray  was  already  established.    When  Schwatka  made 
his  raft  journey  thirty-four  years  later  the  chimneys 
were  still  standing  to  mark  the  site,  and  I  think  some 
ruins  of  them  may  be  seen  yet. 

It  is  said,  on  what  authority  I  know  not,  that  the 
Russians  on  the  coast  were  the  direct  instigators  of  this 
raid.    Had  the  blow  been  aimed  at  Fort  Yukon  there 


FORT  SELKIRK  37 

would  have  been  some  justification  for  their  interven- 
tion, but  Selitirk  was  well  within  the  British  territory. 
However,  these  trading  companies  cared  little  for  polit- 
ical boundaries,  the  one  or  the  other;  their  object  was 
fur,  and  they  were  never  very  scrupulous  as  to  how  they 
obtained  it.  The  superior  vigour  and  activity  of  the 
British  company  led  its  agents  far  afield,  and  this  ven- 
ture of  Campbell's  is  a  shining  instance  thereof. 

Campbell  was  thus  the  first  man  to  explore  the  river 
between  Fort  Selkirk  and  Fort  Yukon,  and  a  published 
account  of  his  journeys  added  that  much  to  the  world's 
knowledge  of  these  parts. 

When  the  great  stampede  to  the  Klondike  took 
place,  Fort  Selkirk  was  re-established,  and  it  was  hither 
that  the  Canadian  Government  sent  its  Yukon  Ex- 
peditionary Force  in  1898.  An  enormous  mass  of  men, 
ninety  per  cent  of  them  aliens,  and  by  far  the  greater 
part  citizens  of  the  United  States,  was  congregated  at 
Dawson,  and  there  was  considerable  disaflfection  to  the 
Dominion  Government  chiefly  in  connection  with  the 
minmg  laws,  and,  I  dare  say,  some  foolish  seditious 
talk.  At  any  rate,  the  Canadian  Government  thought 
it  best  to  have  a  military  force  at  hand;  so  it  sent  this 
body  of  troops.  There  was  never  any  need  of  their 
services  and  they  were  soon  withdrawn. 

Selkirk  is  to-day  chiefly  a  native  place,  with  a  mis- 
sion church  and  school,  a  couple  of  stores,  and  not  much 
else.  During  the  life  of  Bishop  Bompas,  the  first  bishop 
of  these  pars  and  during  the  earliest  years  of  the  episco- 
pate of  his  successor,  Bishop  Stringer,  the  present  bishop. 


VI     !,' 


!  li 


38 


CONFLUENCE  WITH  WHITE  RIVER 


I 

i 


title  was  taken  from  this  place  and  they  were  Bishops  of 
Selkirk.  But  of  late  the  title  has  been  changed  to  con- 
form to  the  political  division  and  is  "Bishop  of  the 
Yukon  Territory." 

One  of  the  chief  tributaries  of  the  Pelly,  the  Mac- 
millan,  is  famous  amongst  sportsmen  for  the  sheep- 
hunting  its  mountains  afford,  and  Mr.  Charles  Sheldon 
in  his  "Wilderness  of  the  Upper  Yukon"  has  given  a 
graphic  account  of  the  region  and  the  sport. 

The  upper  ramparts  of  the  Yukon  are  generally 
counted  to  begin  at  the  confluence  with  the  Pelly.  The 
mountains  grow  loftier  and  the  channel  presses  closer 
beside  them,  but  the  whole  river  has  been  so  moun- 
tainous that  the  distinction  is  a  little  arbitrary. 

In  the  writer's  opinion  the  most  charming  part  of 
the  Yukon  is  already  behind  us,  for  the  steamboat  is 
now  rapidly  approaching  the  confluence  with  the  White 
River  on  the  left  bank,  a  stream  which  changes  the 
whole  character  of  the  Yukon  water.  Above  the  con- 
fluence the  river  is  a  pellucid  stream,  sparkling  and 
gleaming  and  revealing  the  pebbles  at  its  bottom  when- 
ever it  is  still  enough  to  do  so.  But  the  White  River 
discharges  so  turbid  a  stream  that  within  a  short 
distance  it  has  completely  clouded  and  befouled  the 
Yukon  to  a  total  loss  of  limpidity  that  is  never  re- 
covered. 

The  White  River  and  the  Tanana  River  are  the 
Yukon's  two  great  glacial  tributaries,  and  their  head- 
waters drain  the  glaciers  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  mountains.     In  addition  to  the  glacial  silt  with 


EXPLORATION  OF  NAME  39 

which  the  White  River  is  charged,  Ogilvie  says  it  dis- 
solves out  of  its  banics  great  quantities  of  volcanic  ash, 
and  one  judges  therefrom  that  these  deposits  must  be 
heavier  and  deeper  in  the  course  of  the  White  and  its 
chief  tributary,  the  Donjeit,  than  on  the  Yuicon.  One 
who  has  seen  the  Tanana,  which  so  far  as  I  itnow  was 
never  accused  of  volcanic  ash,  will  consider  that  glacier 
drainage  itself  is  sufficient  to  account  for  any  amount 
of  oolid  matter  carried  in  temporary  solution;  but  the 
distinctive  colour  of  the  White  River  from  which  Robert 
Campbell  gave  it  its  name,  is  quite  different  from  the 
tawny  Tanana,  and  may  be  due  to  the  inclusion  of  vol- 
canic ash  in  its  solid  constituents. 

Whatever  it  be,  the  White  ruins  the  Yukon.  All  the 
picturesque  bluffs  and  bold  craggy  mountains  in  the 
world  will  not  restore  the  charm  of  clear  water,  and 
henceforth  its  waters  are  muddy  to  its  mouth;  and  far 
out  beyond  its  mouth,  miles  and  miles  into  Bering  Sea 
its  mud  fouls  the  salt  water. 

In  the  middle  river,  which  I  know  far  more  famil- 
iarly, are  many  spots  that  I  love,  many  reaches  with 
the  diversified  beauties  of  ruddy  rocks  and  olive-green 
trees  near  by,  and  soaring  mountains  beyond;  there 
are  great  gloomy  depths  within  the  Lower  Ramparts 
contrasted  in  the  foreground  with  smiling  valleys,  dappled 
with  spruce  and  birch,  cottonwood  and  willow,  through 
which  pretty  rivulets  meander,  making  very  potent 
appeal  to  the  imagination.  There  are  perspective  views 
where  hills  rise  beyond  hills  into  mountains,  and  still 
more  distant  mountains  boldly  overtop  one  another. 


ll! 

■■V  I 

i 

i  (f: 


UK 


40 


FOULING  A  NOBLE  STREAM 


!l» 


» 


% 


1 1 


!..  i 


with  the  broad,  level  river  sweeping  a  great  curve  in 
front;  scenes  of  a  more  ample  dignity  and  a  more  spacious 
picturesqueness  than  anything  the  upper  river  can 
show.  Yet  I  never  visit  the  upper  river  without  falling 
anew  under  the  spell  of  its  sparkling  water,  nor  return 
to  my  own  region  without  lament  of  a  lost  translucence 
which  nothing  can  compensate. 

So  I  have  grown  to  a  foolish  resentment  of  the  White 
River.  But  for  this  stream  another  seven  hundred  miles 
of  the  Yukon  would  open  its  frank  depths,  naked  and 
unashamed  to  the  delighted  eye;  would  "lure  with  the 
light  of  streaming  stone,"  as  Sidney  Lanier  sings  in  the 
"Song  of  the  Chattahoochee,"  would  mirror  the  skies 
and  the  adjacent  rocks  and  trees  with  a  fidelity  no  turbid 
stream  can  touch.  Glaciers  must  be  drained,  no  doubt, 
but  one  wishes  they  could  find  some  subterranean  sewer 
to  the  sea;  or,  since  the  Tanana  is  already  their  special 
conduit,  and  no  conceivable  addition  to  its  waters  could 
make  them  fouler — the  drainage  of  London  would  not 
affect  their  colour,  consistency,  or  potability — one  regrets 
that  some  slight  change  in  the  elevation  of  land  did  not 
discharge  both  sides  of  the  glacier-bearing  mountains 
into  the  same  channel.  But  even  such  change  would  not 
rid  us  of  that  deplorable  volcanic  ash,  and  'twould  be 
a  large  undertaking  to  reorganise  the  hydrography  of 
the  country. 

In  the  winter  the  whole  Yukoii  flows  beneath  its 
crust  of  ice  as  clear  as  crystal :  glaciers  cease  from  troub- 
ling and  volcanic  ash  is  at  rest;  but  the  very  flood  that 
carries  out  the  ice  brings  down  the  mud  and  the  silt 


STEWART  RIVER  GOLD  41 

and  the  ash,  and  for  weeks  at  a  time  the  water  is  un- 
drinkable  without  filtering  or  settling. 

The  White  River  has  had  some  temporary  prominence 
amongst  miners  from  time  to  time,  but  always  to  their 
disappointment.  When  gold  was  found  on  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Chisana,*  a  tributary  of  the  Tanana,  in 
19131  the  White  was  the  most  available,  though  very 
difficult,  road  thereto  from  the  upper  river,  and  a  town 
sprang  up  at  its  mouth,  but  the  Chisana  was  in  general 
a  failure,  and  one  more  long  chapter  was  added  to  the 
northern  tale  of  wasted  labour  and  useless  suffering. 
The  town  died. 

A  few  miles  below  the  confluence  with  the  White 
another  large  river  is  received  on  the  opposite  bank, 
the  Stewart,  which  stream  was  noted  for  its  gold-bear- 
ing gravels  ten  years  before  the  Klondike  was  discovered. 
In  1884,  says  Ogilvie,  two  men  "cleaned  up"  thirty- 
five  thousand  dollars  on  these  bars,  and  the  news,  when 
it  reached  the  outside,  brought  in  about  one  hundred 
men  in  1886,  who  scattered,  not  only  up  the  Stewa, . 
and  its  tributary  the  McQuesten,  but  widely  over  the 
country.  This  was  the  first  small  "rush"  to  the  Yu- 
kon and  the  beginning  of  general  prospecting  for  its 
placer-gold;  they  are  said  to  have  averaged  one  thou- 
sand dollars  apiece,  exclusively  from  washing  sand  in 
the  summer-time;  the  merest  "skim"  mining,  for  deep 
methods  of  handling  frozen  ground  were  not  invented 
until  later.    I  have  been  told  that  most  of  these  men 

*  This  pretty  name  is  commonly  corrupted  to  the  ugly  one  of  Shu-shu- 
an  na  m  miners'  mouths. 


il 


.  1 

1« 


t 

1 

\ 

i 

^. 

1 

I  ■■ 

tii 

1 

s 

lii 

4a  A  PIONEER  HROSPECIOR 

were  experienced  prospectors  and  miners  from  the  Cas- 
»iar  country  of  British  Columbia,  then  declining  from 
the  first  flush  of  its  gold  production. 

Thirty  miles  or  so  lower  down,  the  Sixtymile  River 
comes  in  on  the  left  limit,  with  a  small  post  at  its  mouth 
called  Ogilvie  after  the  pioneer  government  surveyor 
whose  book  has  often  been  referred  to.  The  Sixtymile 
(these  distance  names,  for  there  are  a  number  of  them, 
will  be  resolved  presently)  has  the  distinction  that  it 
was  the  scene  of  probably  the  first  successful  prospect- 
ing for  gold  in  the  whole  country,  for  it  was  on  a  creek 
tributary  to  this  small  river  that  Arthur  Harper,  the 
pioneer  prospector  of  the  Yukon,  found  pay  in  1875. 
The  creeks  of  the  Sixtymile  were  famous  before  the 
overwhelming  discoveries  on  the  Klondike  eclipsed 
everything  else. 

As  early  as  the  year  just  mentioned,  this  same  Ar- 
thur Harper  and  two  others,  whose  names  must  appear 
in  even  the  most  cursory  glance  at  the  beginnings  of 
things  on  the  Yukon,  Jack  McQuesten  and  Alfred 
Mayo,  had  started  a  trading-post  which  they  named 
Fort  Reliance,  about  six  miles  below  where  Dawson 
now  stands.  It  was  from  this  post  that  the  men  pros- 
pecting above  and  below  it  secured  their  supplies,  and 
it  became  a  base  for  estimating  distance,  and  the  dis- 
tances, in  their  turn,  became  the  names  by  which 
certain  creeks  were  known.  Hence  Sixtymile  River, 
which  was  about  that  distance  above,  and  tlie  Forty- 
mile,  about  that  distance  below.  Fort  Reliance,  with 
others  in  between,  and  beyond. 


THE   KLONDIKE  RUSH  43 

But  as  we  approach  the  termination  of  the  voyage 
on  the  upperTri\«;r  boats,  as  within  a  few  hours  we  swing 
around  a  bend  and  the  great  scarred  mountain— a  land- 
marlc  from  the  earliest  days— that  rises  behind  the  town 
of  Dawson,  comes  into  view,  the  thoughts  of  the  Great 
Stampede  of  twenty  years  ago  swallow  up  all  lesser 
matters  of  early  prospecting  and  mining. 

The  story  of  that  great  gold  "rush,"  not  of  course 
the  greatest  that  the  world  has  known,  but  certainly 
the  most  extravagant  and  sensational  of  all  such  move- 
ments of  mankind,  has  never  been  written  and  perhaps 
never  will  be  written. 

A  great  deal,  indeed,  has  been  written  about  it,  but 
in  a  fragmentary  and,  for  the  most,  merely  journalistic 
way,  and  little  of  it  will  live  or  ought  to  live.  The  verses 
of  Robert  Service  are,  so  far,  its  most  enduring  literary 
memorial,  for  certainly  the  lurid  melodrama  of  his  novel 
"The  Trail  of  Ninety-Eight"  adds  nothing  to  literature 
or  to  his  fnme. 

It  is  only  an  episode  of  history  but  it  is  a  striking 
and  picturesque  one.  Macaulay  could  have  enshrined 
it  adequately  in  a  score  of  pages  of  imperishable  prose, 
and  it  is  not  unworthy  the  pen  of  a  Macaulay.  It  would 
have  found  its  chronicler,  I  think,  but  for  the  Spanish 
War.  The  minds  of  men  were  more  and  more  turning 
to  the  Klondike,  the  newspapers  and  magazines  were 
more  and  more  occupied  by  it;  Joaquin  Miller,  in  his 
premature  senility,  had  visited  it  (I  shall  never  forget 
a  lecture  I  heard  him  deliver  on  his  return);  Richard 
Harding  Davis,  I  have  been  told,  was  contemplating  the 


,'.■■ 

it' 
if; 


i 

4 


44  A  "SACER  VATES"  WANTED 

journey;  when,  at  a  stroke,  the  blowing  up  of  the  Maine 
in  Havana  harbour  violently  forced  the  current  of  the 
world's  interest  into  another  channel,  and  the  Klondike 
was  thought  of  and  talked  of  no  more. 

Of  the  writers  which  the  Klondike  Stampede  pro- 
duced, I  suppose  Jack  London,  news  of  whose  death 
has  come  to  me  almost  as  I  write  these  words,  is  easily 
first.  He  was  in  the  country,  he  was  a  born  story-teller: 
"The  Call  of  the  Wild"  is,  to  my  mind,  the  best  story 
of  the  Great  Stampede.  Yet  I  cannot  concede  that 
Jack  London  has  left  any  literary  memorial  of  it,  for  he 
was  a  writer  of  romances  only  who  cared  nothing  for 
the  verisimilitude  of  his  representations.  His  dogs  are 
not  dogs;  his  Indians  are  more  ridiculously  untrue  to 
life  than  any  that  Fenimore  Cooper  painted;  his  white 
men  are  for  the  most  part  fancy  characters  also.  The 
brutal  animal  side  of  life  attracted  him  unduly,  in  those 
days  of  his  early  writing  at  least,  and  received  undue 
prominence.  The  riot  of  drunken  lust  and  reckless 
gaming  was  certainly  there,  but  it  was  not  the  whole 
thing,  and  one  grows  weary  of  dance-hall  and  gambling- 
den  stories  after  a  while. 

The  Klondike  produced  no  Bret  Harte  to  record 
with  wit  and  with  pathos  its  comedies  and  its  tragedies, 
its  sordidness  and  its  heroism,  and  therein  California 
has  the  advantage.  The  men  were  there,  but  there 
was  no  pen  to  delineate  its  Colonel  Starbottles,  its 
Jack  Hamlins.  On  the  creeks  behind  Dawson  were  a 
number  of  debating  societies,  but  there  was  no  one  to 
give  us  a  "Society  upon  the  Stanislow";  there  was  some 


THE  FIRST  GOLD  45 

sort  of  Truthful  James  in  every  camp,  but  no  one  to  put 
the  breath  of  life  into  him. 

When  in  August,  1896,  George  Carmack  the  white 
man,  or  one  of  his  two  Indian  companions.  "Skookum" 
J.m  and  "Cultus"  Charley,  panned  «,me  gravel  on  a 
creek  of  the  Trondeg  River,  and  found  remarkably  go  k! 
prospects,  they  little  knew  that  they  had  kindled  a  iL„K 
that  should  set  the  world  on  fire.    And  Robert  Ho>.I  r 
son   who  had  told  Carmack  of  his  recent  disa  v..v  nn 
C.old  Bottom,  and  thus  set  him  on  the  journey  ,,,    Br,- 
nanza  on  the  way  to  Gold  Bottom,  went  op  digpJru 
away  where  he  was.  disdainful  of  the  breach  of  n.in,  r's 
comity  of  which  Carmack  was  guilty  in  not.  in  his  turn 
sendmg  word  of  the  much   richer  discovery  that  ha,i 
been  made. 

The  news  soon  spread  up  and  down  the  river,  and 
Bonanza  Creek  and  all  the  adjacent  creeks  were  staked 
from  end  to  end  immediately.  The  local  excitement 
grew  as  the  richness  of  the  ground  appeared,  and  in 
January  of  the  next  year  men  on  the  Pacific  Coast  began 
to  learn  of  the  "strike"  and  to  start  for  the  new  gold- 
fields;  out  It  was  not  until  August  when  a  ship  came 
mto  San  Francisco  harbour  with  something  like  sbt  hun- 
dred  thousand  dollars  on  board,  which  the  newspaper 
reporters  at  once  multiplied  to  two  and  a  half  miUions, 
that  the  excitement  became  world-wide.* 

gathered.    Ogilv.e  ,,  veiy  detailed  on  the  Klondike  discovery     lie  »!,  i^ 

cn'trSct     Hfrb^r'  "■  '■"'''"'/"';  "">"  ->««P-"ai.le;n.rri^ 
dex    ml  h,  ;!'  J^    '•  "  "T  "'  ■nformavion,  but  .ince  it  has  no  in- 


''I 


'I 


li 


1 


THE  GOLD-SEEKERS 


,  i 


M 


Men  of  adventurous  disposition  and  unattractive 
prospects,  in  all  walks  of  life,  began  to  plan  their  migra- 
tion to  the  New  Eldorado;  small  shopkeepers  sold  their 
business,  clerks  and  bookkeepers  and  salesmen  realised 
their  savings  or  mortgaged  their  homes  or  borrowed 
on  their  life-insurance  policies;  in  many  towns  through- 
out the  United  States  little  groups  pooled  their  resources 
and  started  out  in  company,  or  selected  some  member 
or  members  to  go  representing  the  rest  and  covenanting 
to  share  the  gains  with  them.  Professional  men,  physi- 
cians and  lawyers  and  engineers  and  even,  in  some 
cases,  ministers  of  religion,  a*  andoned  their  avoca- 
tions and  joined  the  ever-increasing  throng  that 
pressed  to  the  ports  of  the  Pacific  on  its  way  to  the 
north. 

In  a  less  but  not  inconsiderable  degree  Europe  was 
affected.  From  the  British  Isles,  from  every  country 
of  the  continent,  and  especially  from  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  men  crossed  the  Atlantic  on  every  steamer 
that  sailed,  bound  for  the  same  goal. 

Close  behind  the  army  of  gold-seekers,  catching  up 
with  them,  mingling  with  them,  was  the  army  of  camp 
followers  who  expected  to  grow  rich  catering  to  them; 
road-house  and  restaurant  people,  tradesmen  of  all 
sorts  hauling  little  stocks  of  goods  with  them,  liquor- 
sellers,  tinsmiths,  tailors,  bakers,  and  barbers. 

And  the  parasitical  class  kept  the  caravans  close 
company;  women  of  a  certain  kind  with  their  bullies 
and  managers;  gamblers,  crooks,  confidence  men — the 
underworld  spewed  them  out  in  thousands  to  take  their 


THE  RUSH  AT  ITS  HEIGHT  47 

chance  of  fortune  where  laws  were  lax  and  "everything 
wide  open." 

San  Francisco  and  Portland,  Tacoma  and  Seattle, 
felt  the  stimulus  to  their  trade  of  these  sojourning  and' 
purchasing  pilgrims;  Seattle  in  panicular,  which  be- 
came the  chief  port  of  embarkation,  grew  rich  in  the 
business  of  outfitting— not  entirely  to  its  honourable 
reputation  if  the  legends  that  still  linger  in  the  north 
are  to  be  credited. 

The  shipping  of  the  coast  was  insufficient  to  meet 
the  demand,  and  steamboats  were  hastily  sent  around 
the  Horn,  while  every  ship-building  yard  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  was  working  at  full  stretch. 

What  was  the  country  whither  they  were  bent.? 
On  the  verge  of  the  arctic  regions,  with  a  winter  climate 
surpassing  in  severity  the  regions  of  the  pole  itself,  it 
was  walled  and  ramparted  from  ingress  at  one  end  by 
lofty,  glacier-covered  mountains,  and  at  the  other  end 
could  be  reached  only  through  a  fog-enshrouded,  little- 
known  sea,  and  then  for  no  less  than  sixteen  hundred 
miles  up  a  great  and  rapid  river. 

In  the  fall  of  1897,  and  even  during  the  winter  that 
followed,  the  stream  began  to  beat  upon  the  barriers 
of  the  land  and  to  pass  them,  but  it  was  in  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1898  that  the  great  rush  came.  It  was 
not  possible  to  make  preparations  to  handle  such  mul- 
titudes. They  started,  and  then  swamped,  the  towns 
of  Skagway  and  Dyea,  they  swarmed  like  black  ants 
up  the  sr  ow-covered  passes,  laden  like  beasts  of  burden. 
Many  turned  back  daunted  by  the  enormous  difficulties 


111 


'i  r 


I. 


. 


48 


CLIMATE  NO  DETERRENT 


! 


that  loomed  before  them,  but  many  passed  on,  and  with 
infinite  toil  reaching  the  waters  of  the  interior,  iaunched 
their  rude  craft  and  descended  upon  the  Klondike. 

It  was  not  in  the  multitude  itself  that  the  movement 
was  unique.  Thirty  thousand  is  the  most  authentic 
estimate  of  those  who  went  to  the  north  from  1897  to 
1900.  Far  greater  numbers  flocked  to  California  during 
the  wild  stampede  of  the  middle  of  the  last  century; 
eighty  thousand  arrived  in  the  year  1849;  and  as  many 
as  five  hundred  ships,  deserted  by  their  sailors,  tossed 
idly  in  San  Francisco  Bay  at  one  time.  Australia  saw 
an  even  larger  migration  three  years  later,  upwards  of 
one  hundred  thousand  gold-seekers  entering  by  the 
port  of  Melbourne  alone  in  1852.  It  was  not  in  the 
multitude,  but  in  the  conditions,  that  the  Klondike 
Stampede  was  without  precedent.  Never  before  had 
a  new  gold  region  been  so  remote  and  inaccessible;  never 
before  had  such  masses  of  men  flung  themselves  upon  an 
arctic  wilderness,  devoid  of  human  sustenance  as  most 
men  use  those  words. 

There  was  indeed  already  developed  amongst  the 
hardy  men  who  had  gone  in  twos  and  threes  to  the  north 
a  technique  of  the  arctic  wilderness,  largely  learned  from 
the  Indians.  Pulling  their  own  sleds,*  living  largely  on 
the  game  and  fish  the  country  afforded,  they  made  long 
journeys  up  and  down  the  frozen  rivers,  over  rough  moun- 
tains, through   the  dense  fcrob  forest.     They  left   no 

*  V.  e  are  disposed  to  be  a  little  scornful  of  man-drawn  sleds  these  days, 
bur  fur  distance  covered  and  difftculties  ova-come  I  do  not  think  McClin- 
tock's  record  of  lourneys  made  in  this  way  in  1855  on  the  Franklin  Search 
has  ever  been  surpassed  by  dogs  or  other  means  of  traction. 


PRICE  OK  AMATEURISM  49 

records,  but  over  an  astonishingly  wide  area  there  were 
few  streams  their  boats  had  not  furrowed,  few  moun- 
tain passes  their  sleds  had  not  crossed,  before  the  world 
even  heard  of  the  Yuiion  gold-fields.  Scarce  a  new 
"strike"  anywhere  nowadays  but  reveals  some  traces 
in  its  vicinity  of  early,  forgotten  prospecting. 

But  of  what  avail  was  this  dearly  bought  wood- 
craft and  snow-craft  to  hordes  of  men  fresh  from  a  life 
in  the  office  and  the  shop  ?  They  had  neither  time  nor 
opportunity  to  learn  anything,  and  they  pitted  their 
inexperience  and  ignorance,  their  little  sheltered  city- 
bred  habits  and  customs,  against  the  savageness  of 
nature  in  her  sternest  moods  and  most  naked  fastnesses. 
Hundreds  of  them  perished.  They  died  of  exhaustion, 
of  starvation,  of  pneumonia.  They  were  drowned,  were 
frozen,  were  smothered  in  snowslides;  they  lay  in  log 
cabins  rotting  with  scurvy.  And  those  that  reached 
Dawson  herded  themselves  together  and  fouled  their 
own  surroundings  with  such  disregard  for  health  and 
decency  that  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  swept  away 
scores  of  them. 

Other  routes  there  were,  through  the  interior  of  Brit- 
ish Columbia  and  through  the  northwest  territories, 
even  longer  and  more  onerous.  The  Stikine  route  had 
many  victims,  but  the  so-called  "Edmonton  route"  had, 
justly  or  unjustly,  perhaps  the  worst  repute  of  all.  Of 
those  who  entered  upon  it,  some  took  two  years  to  reach 
the  Klondike,  consuming  or  abandoning  all  they  brought 
with  them.  Some  of  them,  passing  the  streams  they 
should   have  ascended  to  reach  the   tributaries  of  the 


■*  '-t' 


^:i 


m 


"■'Af'*Wrf'  ^": 


5° 


DAWSON  TO-DAY 


r 


m 


'<} 


1^ 


Pelly,  went  so  far  north  that  there  was  nothing  for  it 
but  to  maiie  the  difficult  Rat  portage,  and  so  descend 
the  Porcupine,  to  find  themselves  on  the  Yukon  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  below  their  destination. 

Here  at  the  foot  of  the  massive  mountain  with  the 
naked  scar  lies  what  is  left  of  the  city  the  adventurers 
builr.  The  flat  on  which  it  stands  was  partly  made  by 
the  landslide  to  which  the  scar  dates  oack;  the  rest  of 
it  was  made,  I  think,  by  the  swift  little  river  that  comes 
in  just  above,  with  a  swampy,  sandy  mouth,  a  little 
river  famous  throughout  the  world.  The  Indians  called 
it  "Trondeg";  in  some  mysterious  way  the  white  men 
corrupted  that  name  to  Klondike. 

The  Yukon  contracts  greatly  just  before  its  con- 
fluence with  the  Klondike  and  sweeps  in  its  narrow  bed 
very  swiftly  past  Dawson  (named  by  Ogiivic  for  the 
surveyor-general  of  Canada  of  that  day).  The  steam- 
boat wharves  line  the  lower  part  of  the  river-front,  where 
the  remaining  business  congregates;  the  barracks  of  the 
Northwest  Mounted  Police,  the  handsome  residence  with 
its  beautiful  grounds  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Yukon 
Territory,  and  the  attractive  and  we'1-kcpt  St.  Paul's 
Church  of  the  Church  of  England,  line  its  upper  part, 
with  an  intermediate  stretch  of  empty  buildings  and 
boarded-up  stores. 

I  know  not  how  to  describe  Dawson;  there  are  so 
many  substantial  buildings,  as  befits  the  capital  of  the 
territory  (though  they  are  all  of  wood),  so  many  at- 
tractive and  hospitable  homes,  so  many  brilliant  gar- 
dens, that   one   would   gladly   shut   one's  eyes   to   its 


».  I   .'J  T 


ra^t: 


r-', 


&l 


ji; 


3 

^m 


J4 


J 


;'-l'' 


A  DOOMED  CITY 


S' 


steady,  gradual  decay.  I  never  saw  it  in  its  full  pros- 
perity; in  1904,  when  first  I  visited  it,  although  only 
seven  years  old,  it  was  past  its  prime.  That  was  the 
year  of  the  "rush"  to  Fairbanks,  and  boatload  after 
boatload  of  people  was  leaving  for  the  new  camp  a 
thousand  miles  away,  never  to  return.  That  is  the  sad 
thing  about  any  placer-mining  town.  However  it  may 
grow  and  flourish,  however  comfortable  its  homes  and 
however  attached  to  them  people  become,  however  the 
amenities  of  life  may  be  fostered  and  developed,  however 
the  arts  and  trades  may  be  established,  however,  year  by 
year,  as  its  market-gardens  and  hothouses  grow  more  and 
more  productive,  conditions  of  living  become  more  and 
more  pleasant,  the  whole  thing  is  without  substantial 
foundation,  and  inevitably  temporary.  By  and  by  the 
alluvial  gold  will  all  be  gone;  it  is  not  like  quartz  veins 
that  extend  amazing  distances  into  the  earth  and  by  de- 
terminable tests  may  last  at  a  given  rate  of  extraction 
for  a  century.  There  is  just  so  much  01  it,  lying  in 
the  gravels  on  the  bed-rock  of  certain  creeks,  and  when 
the  creeks  are  stripped  and  the  gravels  are  removed  and 
the  gold  taken  from  them,  the  game  is  up.  There  is  a 
certain  modem  aftermath  of  dredgers  and  steam-shovels 
and  hydraulic  jets,  and  Dawson  is  living  on  that  after- 
math now,  but  that  also  is  temporary;  and  one  does 
not  see  what  expectation  or  even  hope  may  be  enter- 
tained that  Dawson  will  revive,  unless  quartz  should 
be  discovered  in  its  vicinity,  of  which  there  does  not 
now  seem  much  chance.  It  is  a  wrench  to  give  up  a 
pretty  home  with   a  beautiful  garden,  on   which   time 


,U 


f 


52 


UNAVOIDABLE  EXODUS 


tr« 


i)f,ii 


HI 


I 


Hi 


and  loving  care  have  been  lavished,  and  many  a  good 
woman  has  had  a  heavy  heart  and  has  wept  bitter  tears 
at  the  necessity  of  it,  but  what  are  people  to  do  when  the 
placers  play  out  ?  They  cannot  live  by  selling  one  an- 
other cabbages  and  taking  in  one  another's  washing,  as 
some  seem  to  imagine,  nor  even  by  fishing  in  the  Klon- 
dike River,  as  George  Carmack  and  !.'-  Indian  compan- 
ions were  doing  when  Henderson  vd  them  of  his  dis- 
covery on  Gold  Bottom.  The  am  '  ities  would  not  long 
be  preserved  in  a  society  so  supported. 

There  is  only  one  thing  to  do — get  out  while  you 
can;  get  away  to  other  mining-camps,  to  fresh  dis- 
coveries of  placer-gold,  where  money  is  plentiful  and 
business  of  all  kinds  is  brisk.  The  man  does  not  matter 
so  much;  he  is  of  a  restless,  roving  disposition  or  he 
would  never  have  turned  to  this  life;  but  sometimes  he 
is  married  to  a  gentle  little  woman  who  longs  for  a  home, 
and  starts  instinctively  to  make  one  wherever  she  may 
be,  and  then  I  am  sorry  for  his  wife. 

In  the  nature  of  things  it  must  be  so  with  all  placer- 
mining  towns  in  the  north.  I  will  not  say  it  must  be 
so  with  F'airbanks,  because  Fairbanks  just  now  is  in  a 
very  sensitive  stage,  and  there  would  be  a  howl  from  its 
newspapers  and  I  should  be  called  the  Prophet  of  Despair 
again.  Fairbanks  may  be  an  exception:  it  may  be  able 
to  live  from  its  market-gardens  and  its  laundries  and 
the  government  railway  that  is  building  to  it.  And,  of 
course,  there  is  always  the  chance  of  quartz  wherever 
there  are  placers.  The  placers  came  f.om  quartz;  geol- 
ogists are  agreed  about  that;   the  question  is,  were  all 


MECHANICAL  MINING  53 

the  quartz  stringers  disintegrated  and  denuded  in  mak- 
ing the  alluvial  gold  ?  Quartz  would  set  Fairbanks  per- 
manently on  the  map;  quartz  would  revive  Dawson; 
and  nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to 
hear  that  it  had  been  found  near  them  both  in  large 
quantity. 

I  shall  nor  be  expected  to  go  back  into  the  creeks 
with  the  visitor  in  a  book  that  touches  mining  only  as 
mining  touches  history  or  literature.  I  had  rather  climb 
the  hill  behind  Dawson  again,  while  waiting  for  a  boat, 
and  get  the  fine  view  up  and  down  the  river  and  back 
to  the  Rocky  Mountains  in  the  distance,  which  it  gives. 

But  there  art  automobiles  which  will  take  the  visitor 
over  gootl  roads  out  to  the  creeks  which  were  the  scenes 
of  the  sudden  bewildering  fortunes  of  early  days,  and 
show  him  the  huge  monsters  that  have  superseded  the 
man  with  the  pick  and  shovel;  monsters  with  an  endless 
chain  of  buckets  for  a  probo.scis,  who  thrust  that  snout 
into  the  bowels  of  the  creek  and  dif;  up  sand  and  gravel 
by  the  hundreds  of  tons  and  search  every  ounce  of  it 
fo:  gold.  They  are  making  money  for  their  masters, 
ncrtwith-standing  the  millions  that  were  expended  in 
bringing  water  and  electric  power  from  afar,  and  will 
make  money  for  some  years  yet.  Each  one  does  the 
work  of  a  hundred  men,  I  am  told— or  is  it  two  hun- 
dred .'—but  since  they  do  not  eat,  nor  need  places  to 
sleep,  nor  wear  clothes,  nor  get  sick  and  send  for  the 
doctor,  they  are  a  poor  substitute  for  the  men  they  do 
the  work  of,  so  far  as  maintaining  a  town  is  concerned. 
When  the  visitor  returns  he  m.-jy  spend  an  hour  or 


li 


1, 


llln 


54 


PALMY  DAYS 


two  looking  at  the  deserted  places  of  festivity  where 
those  bewildering  fonunes  were  spent  in  many  cases 
almost  as  fast  as  they  were  made.  I  met  a  man  freight- 
ing with  dogs  on  the  Koyukuk  some  years  since  who  in 
these  palmy  days  of  prodigality  offered  a  dance-hall 
girl  her  weight  in  gold-dust  to  marry  him.  The  girl  re- 
fused, telling  htm  she  would  get  his  gold-dust  anyhow. 
She  got  it  I 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   UPPER   YUKON-FOR 1  VMILE,   EAGLE.  AND  CIRCLE 

Two  or  three  miles  below  Dawson,  by  an  interest- 
ing mountain  trail,  giving  fine  views  to  those  who  do 
not  mind  a  little  climb,  is  the  native  village  of  Moose- 
hide.  The  mountain  was  named  Moosehide  Moun- 
tain,* from  the  shape  of  the  permanent  scar  it  bears, 
long  before  Dawson  came  into  existence,  and  presumably 
gave  name  to  the  village.  A  church  and  a  little  school- 
house  and  a  number  of  cabins  cluster  at  the  mouth  of 
a  creek. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  natives  of  the  upper 
Yukon  because  I  know  nothing  about  them  save  in  a 
general  way.  They  are  not  numerous  and  they  are 
much  scattered;  I  judge  that  in  some  respects  their 
condition  is  worse,  and  in  some  respects  it  is  better, 
than  that  of  the  natives  of  the  middle  and  lower  river. 
The  salmon  traverse  the  Yukon  River  quite  up  to 
its  head,  perhaps  the  most  astonishing  extent  of  fish 
migration  in  the  world,  but  the  numbers  taken  steadily 
•diminish  as  the  river  is  ascended,  and  above  Dawson 
this  fine  fish  is  no  longer  a  staple  article  of  native  diet. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  government  has  perhaps 
been  more  wisely  alive  to  the  needs  of  its  Indian  pop- 

♦  Schwatka  mentions  the  name,  and,  itrange  to  say,  does  not  even  try 
»  overiay  it  with  some  German  or  Scandinavian  or  Polish  scientist. 

55 


:^J\ 


MtCROCOFY   RESOLUTION  TIST  CHART 

{ANSI  ond  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 

IS.  " 

I   l£ 

■  iiil 

|Z2 

1  ■•■ 

1.   ,. 

1^ 

i^ 

m 

1.25 

1^ 

m 

^^^ 

^  APPLIED  HVMGE     In^ 

^^  t6b5   EasI   Uai"   Sl-Ml 

ST^  Rocnesler.   N«*   'ork        M609       uS* 

■jg  (716)   *82  -  OiOO  -  Ohore 

^E  (716)   288-  5989  -  To. 


56  NATIVE   DETERIORATION 

ulation  than  has  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
I  have  no  wish  to  praise  the  Canadian  administration 
at  the  expense  of  our  own  in  this  or  any  other  matter, 
but  it  is  notorious  that  the  laws  against  the  selling  of 
hquor  to  Indians  have  been  far  more  vigorously  enforced 
on  the  British  side  of  the  boundary:  a  result  again 
due  to  that  efficient  body-the  Northwest  Mounted 
Police. 

But  it  seems  altogether  impossible  that  a  tribe  of 
Indians  should  live  in  the  near  neighbourhood  of  a  con- 
siderable   white    town    without    suffering    degradation. 
There  are  always  white  men  eager  to  associate  with 
them  to  debauch  the  women  and  make  profit  of  the 
men;  insensibly  the  native  virtues  are  sapped,  the  simple 
native  customs  undergo  sophistication  into  a  grinning 
imitation   of  white   customs;  jaunty   cast-off  millinery 
displaces  the  decent  handkerchief  on  the  women's  heads 
cracked    patent-leather    shoes    and    even    French   heels 
displace  the  comfortable  home-made  moccasins  on  their 
feet;   the  men  grow  shiftless  and  casual,  picking  up  odd 
jobs  around  town  and  disdaining  the  hunting  and  fish- 
ing by  which  they  used  to  live. 

Each  year  a  band  of  Indians  from  the  Peel  River 
(a  tributary  of  the  Mackenzie)  make  a  long  overland 
journey  to  Dawson  with  their  furs,  for  purposes  of  trade 
and  their  stalwart  vigour  of  body  and  independence  of 
manner  no  less  than  the  gay  bravery  of  their  wilderness 
attire  impress  the  citizens  of  Dawson  very  favourably 
and  much  is  made  of  the  contrast  which  they  present 
to  the  degenerates  of  Moosehide.     Yet  I  have  heard 


CANADIAN   MOUNTED  POLICE  57 

Bishop  Stringer  say  that  when  first  he  knew  the  Moose- 
hide  Indians  they  were  in  every  respect  the  peers  of 
their  Peel  River  brethren.  It  is  as  true  in  the  Yukon 
Territory  as  it  is  in  Alaska  that  1-e  who  would  see  the 
Indians  at  their  best  must  see  them  remote  from  the 
settlements  of  the  white  man. 

More  than  once  reference  has  been  made  in  passing 
to  the  activities  of  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police,  and 
I  am  glad,  before  leaving  the  Yukon  Territory,  to  speak 
of  them  at  a  little  more  length. 

There  is  a  very  fine  illustration  of  the  use  and  in- 
fluence of  prestige  in  the  operations  of  this  frontier  corps. 
Of  smart  soldierly  bearing,  of  a  notably  unconcerned 
manner,  clad  in  conspicuous  scarlet  coat  and  striped 
trousers,  they  are  rarely,  if  ever,  armed  with  anything 
beyond  a  little  riding-crop,  which,  with  the  spurs  jingling 
at  their  heels,  is  all  that  is  left  in  the  north  to  remind 
themselves  and  others  that  they  are  mounted  police. 
Yet  the  mere  presence  of  one  of  these  men,  though  every 
one  knows  he  bears  no  arms,  will  be  more  effective  in 
quelling  disturbance,  in  preventing  murderous  violence, 
in  securing  the  persons  of  offenders,  than  half  a  dozen 
slouchy  deputy  marshals  or  deputy  sheriffs  would  be, 
bristling  with  automatic  artillery.  The  ruffian  knows 
that  this  scarlet  constable  is  not  armed,  but  he  knows 
that  the  Dominion  of  Canada  m,  and  that  the  whole 
power  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  nay,  the  whole  power 
of  the  British  Empire,  is  behind  that  scarlet  coat.  He 
knows  there  is  short  shrift  for  those  who  resist  authority, 
that  the  law  is  faithful  and  prompt,  and  that  no  cost 


:()  il 


•■  i 


S8 


VALUE  TO  LAW  AND  ORDER 


u 


I  I 

. ;  < 

Cm 


I'    ' 


I 


II 


or  pains  will  be  counted  too  great  in  hunting  down  and 
punishing  offenders. 

I  have  never  seen  any  approach  to  military  arrogance 
amongst  these  men,  nor  have  ever  heard  it  complained 
against  them  in  a  population  that  would  certainly  be 
quick  to  resent  anything  of  the  sort;  there  is  no  "pride 
in  their  port,  defiance  in  their  eye."  So  marked  is  the 
quiet  indifference  of  their  manner  that  I  think  it  must 
be  one  of  the  traditions  of  their  esprit  de  corps.  Yet 
let  need  arise  for  their  services  and  they  are  very  pres- 
ently on  the  spot.  They  remind  one  of  Charles  II's 
sayir.g  about  Sidney  Godolphin,  that  he  was  "never  in 
the  way  and  never  out  of  the  way." 

In  this  arctic  frontier  country  their  services  are  very 
varied.  Every  private  in  the  corps  has  the  authority 
of  a  civil  constable  or  deputy  U.  S.  marshal;  every  of- 
ficer has  the  legal  authority  of  two  magistrates  (for  by 
Canadian  law  two  magistrates  sitting  together  have 
wider  jurisdiction  than  either  of  them  sitting  alone). 
They  have  patrolled  their  third  of  the  Yukon  River  with 
police-boats  in  the  summer  and  dog-teams  in  the  winter, 
from  the  first,  while  the  remaining  two-thirds  has  no 
sort  of  police-boat  or  police-patrol  to  this  day. 

It  was  stated  in  the  Dawson  newspapers  some  time 
ago  that  in  the  twelve  years  that  the  Yukon  Terri- 
tory had  then  been  organised,  there  had  been  thirteen 
murders  committed — and  twelve  murderers  hanged. 
One  would  not  care  to  print  the  figures  for  Alaska  in 
contrast.  ■ 

Bu    thes",  strictly  military  and  constabulary  duties 


VARIED  POLICE  DUTIES 


59 


are  only  a  beginning,  and  there  is  scarce  any  office  of 
public  utility  that  they  do  not  on  occasion  fulfil. 

They  are  a  rescue  corps.    Is  some  expected  traveller 
of  any  sort  overdue  in  severe  weather  (as  they  learn 
by  telegraph  along  the  trail),  a  swift   dog-team  is  de- 
spatched with  a  couple  of  men  to  his  relief;  does  some 
prospector  disappear  in  the  hills  altogether,  they  will 
rake  that  country  with  a  fine-tooth  comb,  but  they  will 
discover  some  evidence  of  his  fate  if  they  be  unable  to 
discover  the  man  himself.     Is  there  mail  for  whalers  win- 
tering at  that  last  remote  outpost  of  civilisation,  Herschel 
Island,  a  detail  of  police  is  despatched  six  hundred  miles 
across  the  trackless  frozen  wilderness  to  deliver  it;  and 
on  one  such  journey  of  late  years  the  men,  missing  their 
way,  perished  of  exposure  and  privation.    A  citizen  of 
Alaska  may  be  pardoned,  however  real  his  patriotism,  if 
he  look  with  longing  eyes  upon  this  admira'      corps;  if 
he  wish  that  our  idle  military,  our  unpaid  and  often  il- 
literate magistracy,  our  politician  deputy  marshals,  our 
whole  clumsy  inefficient  system,  could  be  superseded  by 
such  an  organisation  as  this;  if  he  regret  that  the  pres- 
tige of  the  Great  Republic  has  no  similar  representation 
in  the  north. 

A  detailed  description  of  hundreds  of  miles  of  scenery 
into  which  the  same  elements  constantly  enter  with  only 
slight  varip*-'  of  arrangement  would  probably  prove 
intolerably  ious  to  the  reader,  and  certainly  would 
to  the  writer.  The  irregular,  tree-covered  rocky  bluffs 
rise  on  each  side  of  the  river;  what  boots  it  that  here 
they  are  higher  and  here  lower,  here  closer  and  here 


;"/ 


60        SCENERY  AND   HUMAN  ASSOCIATION 

farther  apart,  now  more  continuous,  now  more  broken  ? 
There  would  not,  I  suppose,  be  anything  positively  il- 
legitimate, however  much  that  was  morbid,  in  a  desire 
to  have  a  complete  description  of  the  banks  of  this  river, 
their  geologic  character,  their  altitude,  their  vegetation, 
their  colour,  their  contour  from  Whitehorse  to  St.  Michael, 
nothing  that  would  reflect  upon  a  man's  antecedents  or 
Christian  character,  but,  under  submission,  the  present 
writer  would  leave  such  task  to  others. 

Here  is  a  stretch  of  forty-five  or  fifty  miles  from 
Dawson  to  Fortymile  with  nothing  specially  distinctive 
about  it  that  I  can  remember  or  that  the  maps  or  my 
diaries  recall.  Fort  Reliance  is  gone;  not  a  vestige,  I 
think,  remains,  and  Dawson  has  taken  its  place  as  a  dis- 
tance-measuring base;  but  the  old  place-names  that  de- 
pended on  Fort  Reliance  survive,  and  Fortymile  is  still 
Fortymile. 

After  all,  it  is  human  association  upon  which  scenery 
must  depend  for  much  of  its  keenest  interest.  The 
Matterhorn  was  a  splendid  rugged  monument  of  nature 
all  down  the  ages,  but  since  Whymper's  pertinacious 
and  indomitable  attack  its  rock  towers  gleam  the  brighter 
in  all  men's  eyes;  even  the  terrible  accident  that  at- 
tended his  success  has  given  it  a  tragic  interest  that 
would  not  have  remained  from  a  safe  return;  and  that 
most  beautiful  of  volcanoes,  Cotopaxi,  lifts  its  graceful 
cone  the  fairer  and  clearer  that  he  spent  a  night  on  its 
summit.  Ni  man  has  really  seen  the  Grand  Caiion  of 
the  Colorado  who  did  not  know  at  the  time  of  his  visit 
of  the  daring  and  romantic  journey  of  John  Wesley 


CASES   IN   POINT 


6i 


Powell,  the  one-armed  veteran  of  Shiloh,  who  launched 
his  boat  upon  unknown  waters  and  plunged  a  thousand 
miles  through  cataracts  and  canons  ere  he  reached  the 
last  stupendous  chasm  of  all.  I  know  not  just  what 
physical  characteristic  makes  the  English  Lakes,  at 
certain  times  and  seasons,  the  loveliest  perhaps  in  the 
world,  or  if  it  be  physical  characteristic  or  not,  but  Words- 
worth has  thrown  a  spell  upon  them  that  one  cannot 
analyse  and  cannot  resist.  The  "Thundering  Smoke" 
one  might  think  had  sufficient  interest  as  the  greatest 
of  all  waterfalls,  but  it  has  yet  more,  that,  sick  and  weary, 
after  long,  painful  search,  David  Livingstone  at  last 
heard  the  thunder  and  saw  the  smoke. 

It  is  a  rich  vein,  but  this  is  not  the  place  to  pursue 
it;  let  the  reader  pursue  it  for  himself.  Let  him  ask 
himself  if  Mt.  St.  Elias  would  hold  so  much  magic  in 
its  name  if  the  eyes  of  Vitus  Bering  and  his  doomed  com- 
panions hal  not  caught  a  glimpse  of  its  everlasting  snows 
and  knew  thereby  that  they  were  hard  upon  the  land 
they  sought,  and  if  to  that  old  glamour  a  new  interest 
were  not  added  when  a  King's  brother,  disdaining  soft 
delights,  laboured  for  weeks  to  reach  its  summit  and  set 
the  flag  of  Italy  thereon.  Even  mere  points  in  the  arctic 
waste  glow  with  a  faint  but  fascinating  radiance  from  the 
names  men  gave  them  in  the  stress  of  their  endeavours; 
the  "Isles  of  God's  Mercy,"  where  Henry  Hudson 
found  shelter  from  the  enveloping  ice  on  his  last  voyage; 
the  "Anxiety  Point"  and  "Return  Reef"  of  Franklin— 
that  Sir  Galahad  of  erplorers  whose  Eskimo  name  means 
"  the  man  who  does  not  molest  our  women  " ;  the  "  Mercy 


^jAJ 


\il 


fi 


I 

till' 
■I  P 

1 


I   • 


62 


YUKON  ASSCX:iAT10NS 


Bay"  of  McClure  in  Bank's  Land,  the  "Thank  God" 
harbour  of  poor  Hall  on  the  Polaris. 

Just  so  is  this  great  Yukon  River  the  richer  in  in- 
terest for  the  men  who  have  travelled  it,  the  richer  for 
Schwatka's  clumsy  raft— "of  all  methods  of  navigation 
undoubtedly  the  oldest  and  undoubtedly  the  worst," 
he  writes  with  pardonable  irritation  as  its  corner  hits  a 
bank  and  rips  a  log  off;  the  richer  for  Robert  Campbell 
and  the  other  adventurous  scouts  of  the  Great  Com- 
pany, yes  and  the  richer  for  McQuesten  and  Harper 
of  Fort  Reliance,  who  followed  the  miners  up  to  the 
Stewart  River  and  back  again  to  the  Fortymile  with 
their  trading-post,  and  thus  made  prospecting  possible; 
"The  Father  of  the  Yukon"  is  the  name  the  miners 
give  McQuesten.  And  I  have  tried,  and  shall  try,  to 
gather  up  such  interest  of  association  as  the.  river  has, 
and  beguile  the  reader  with  it  in  the  long  stretches  that 
yet  lie  before  us,  when  I  have  sufficiently  indicated  their 
general  character.  I  find  added  interest  in  this  very 
stretch  of  river  because  O.  Henry  speaks  in  one  of  his 
stories  of  "slipping  down  in  a  sled  from  Dawson  to 
Fortymile,"  using  it  as  a  simile.  From  this  and  other 
Klondike  references  I  am  disposed  to  wonder  if  in  some 
of  the  unaccounted-for  years  in  the  life  of  this  great 
story-teller  he  may  have  visited  the  north.  How  else 
should  he  know  about  the  ptarmigan  in  the  Chilkoot 
Pass  changing  their  plumage  f — or  was  he  merely  quirk 
to  pick  things  up  from  others  ? 

The  Fortymile  River,  which  flows  into  the  Yukon 
on  its  left  bank,  has  its  mouth  in  Canadian  Territory, 


A  CHAMPION   NAVIGATOR 


63 


but  about  twenty  miles  up  it  crosses  the  boundary-line, 
so  that  the  Fortymile  gold  camp  is  (I  had  almost  written 
"was")  partly  in  one  country  and  partly  in  another. 
It  was  the  earliest  of  all  Alaskan  camps,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Stewart  River  diggings,  the  earliest 
of  all  the  northern  gold  camps. 

In  the  summer  of  1886  two  men  found  coarse  gold 
on  bed-rock,  and  since  placer-miners  are  much  more 
eager  for  coarse  gold  than  fine,  and  this  was  the  first 
discovery  of  coarse  gold  in  the  Yukon  country,  the  dig- 
gings on  the  Stewart  were  generally  abandoned  and  the 
men  flocked  hither. 

I  met  one  of  these  old  Stewart  River  and  Fortymile 
pioneers  soon  after  I  came  into  the  country.  It  was 
at  Circle  and  he  had  come  in  a  poling-boat  all  the  way 
from  the  Koyukuk,  having  descended  that  stream  from 
the  camp  at  its  headwaters.  He  told  me  that  he  was 
going  back  to  have  a  try  at  some  ground  on  the  Stewart 
River  that  looked  good  to  him  twenty  years  ago.  Now, 
the  mouth  of  the  Koyukuk  is  upwards  of  six  hundred 
miles  helow  Circle,  and  Circle  is  nearly  four  hundred 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Stewart.  And  I  asked 
him:  "Why  didn't  you  ship  as  a  deck-hand  on  a  steam- 
boat and  get  paid  for  going  up .'"  He  answered  simply, 
"I  did,"  and  as  I  looked  at  him  and  waited  for  an  ex- 
planation, he  added:  "But  I  don't  allow  no  man  to  talk 
to  me  the  way  that  mate  talked,  so  I  made  them  put 
my  boat  in  the  water  and  I've  brought  her  up  myself." 
Here  was  a  man  well  past  sixty  years  of  age,  I  judge, 
who  had  already  propelled  that  long  narrow  boat  tied 


Jfrl  I 


FORr/MILF.  CAMP 


m 


up  to  the  beach  upwards  of  six  hundred  miles  by  the 
force  of  Ins  arms,  and  was  cheerfully  contemplating  an- 
other four  hundred  miles  of  such  progress.  He  told  me 
he  averaged  about  twenty  miles  a  day  and  said  he  didn't 
mind  it  much  except  in  the  Flats:  but  "them  blamed 
Flats  is  the  meanest  part  of  the  river;  a  man  don't  know 
where  to  go,  he  ha-  to  cross  over  all  the  time  and  loses 
a  mile  every  time  he  crosses  over."  I  confess  I  was 
struck  with  astonishment  and  admiration  at  this  quiet, 
independent  old  man  who  had  rather  pole  his  boat  a 
thousand  miles  u;'  the  swift  Yukon  than  submit  to  the 
hectoring  of  a  steamboat  mate.  This  was  the  stuff  those 
Stewart  River  pioneers  were  made  of,  and  I  think  the 
Yukon  River  is  the  richer  in  interest  for  them.  I  never 
saw  him  or  heard  of  him  again;  I  forgot  to  ask  his  name; 
but  I  hope  he  reached  the  ground  that  looked  good  to 
him  twenty  years  before  and  that  it  proved  as  good  as 
it  looked  then. 

Ogilvie,  who  came  into  the  country  the  following 
year,  says  that  the  estimated  output  of  the  Fortymile 
camp  that  season  was  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Since  this  was  the  only  base  of  supplies  on  the  river, 
almost  all  the  prospecting  for  some  years  to  come  was 
done  around  this  centre,  and  many  gold-bearing  creeks 
were  discovered.  It  was  from  the  Fortymile  base  that 
the  prospecting  was  done  which  discovered  the  gold- 
bearing  creeks  of  the  Circle  camp  a  little  later,  and  from 
the  Circle  camp  the  prospecting  reached  over  to  the 
Tanana  and  ultimately  established  the  Fairbanks  camp. 

But  the  Fortymile  camp  is  almost  played  out.    The 


LURE  OF  PLACER-MINING  (>s 

newer  camps  have  taken  away  the  men  until  compara- 
tively few  are  left,  the  Iditarod  stampede  of  1910  taking 
most  of  them.  Yet  men  may  stil'.  '••  seen  "rocking  on 
the  bars"  and  making  "better  than  ages"  as  they  did 
thirty  years  ago,  and  I  suppose  there  will  always  be  some 
desultory  mining  in  the  region  of  this  river,  since  the 
bars  seem  to  renew  themselves  to  some  extent  every  year. 
I  saw  a  couple  of  small  dredges  upon  the  best  of  these 
bars  when  I  passed  down  the  Fortymile  a  few  years 
ago,  but  I  think  they  are  not  now  in  operation. 

It  is  not  hard  to  understand  the  lure  of  a  life  that  in 
three  months'  work  can  "take  out  a  grub-stake"  for 
the  whole  yeai  with  naught  but  a  home-made  rocker 
and  "  long  tom,"  which  is  a  can  at  the  end  of  a  pole. 
To  an  artisan  or  factory  operative — even  to  '  e  priv- 
ileged workers  for  Henry  Ford — to  any  man  wno  labours 
eight  hours  a  day  year  in  and  year  out,  there  must  be  a 
great  attraction  in  an  occupation  that  leads  a  man  into 
the  open  air  all  the  summer-time,  and  in  that  summer- 
time provides  a  sufficient  maintenance  for  the  rest  of 
the  year.  There  are  many  men  so  situated  in  Alaska, 
besides  the  "snipers"  on  bars,  men  who  have  claims  on 
shallow  creeks,  where  single-handed  while  the  water  runs 
they  can  sluice  out  their  year's  support.  They  have  no 
large  money  in  their  claim,  '  it  there  are  nine  months 
in  which  they  can  prospect  elsewhere  for  the  fortune 
they  never  cease  looking  forward  to.  To  a  man  not 
dependent  on  the  distractions  and  amusements  of  a 
city,  not  dependent  on  the  society  of  others,  who  is 
willing  to  forego  the  satisfaction  and  comfort  of  a  wife 


,    II 


<  a 


_»bij 


(yb 


DECAYED  MINING  TOWN 


1} 


If 


and  a  home  of  his  own,  it  is  a  life  that  lures.  And  some 
of  them  have  had  homes  of  their  own,  but  grown  sick 
of  cities  and  civilisation,  have  cut  themselves  loose, 
honourably  or  otherwise,  and  have  plunged  into  the 
wilderness  and  buried  themselves  therein. 

Since  it  is  the  down-river  "port  of  entiy"  of  the 
Yukon  Territory,  I  suppose  a  custom-house  will  be 
maintained  at  Fortymile;  but  there  is  not  much  else 
left  save  a  little  chapel  of  the  Church  of  England,  a 
police  post,  a  store,  and  a  road-house.  I  do  not  think 
the  store  can  do  anything  like  as  much  business  as  Harper 
and  McQuesten  did  when  they  first  established  their 
post,  thirty  ye;irs  ago,  and  one  tiip  a  year  of  one  little 
steamboat  supplied  the  whole  Yukon.  Sometimes  there 
are  a  few  Indians  here  and  sometimes  there  are  none. 
There  used  to  be  many,  and  Bishop  Bompas  had  a  school 
here  long  ago,  but  they  are  a  binational  tribe,  these 
Indians  of  the  border,  and  are  sometimes  subjects  of 
the  British  crown  at  Fortymile  and  sometimes  wards 
of  the  United  States  at  Eagle. 

The  Fortymile  River  has  many  branches  and  trib- 
utaries, .-Tiad  like  a  network  over  a  large  area,  the 
headwaters  of  its  south  fork  reaching  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  Tanana  River  itself  at  Lake  Mansfield,  and  the 
rough,  broken  country  it  drains  is  one  of  the  greatest 
caribou  countrit  ,  in  all  the  north.  On  their  annual 
migrations  they  cross  the  forks  of  the  Fortymile  by 
hundreds  of  thousands. 

A  little  below  Fortymile,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river.  Coal  Creek  comes  in,  and  here  an  English  corpora- 


SQLAW   ROCK 


67 


tion  has  apent  of  late  years  several  millions  of  (iollars, 
I  am  told,  in  an  ambitious  but  not  successful  attempt 
to  generate  electric  power  from  the  fuel  that  1-  mined 
and  transmit  it  overland  by  wires  to  the  creeks  of  the 
Klondike  for  the  operation  of  dredges.  I  suppose  it  is 
the  wide  experience  in  many  lands  of  the  Guggenheim 
corporation  that  m;}kes  it  successful  beyond  all  others 
in  enterprises  of  this  sort;  enterprises  in  which  a  slight 
error  of  judgment  may  entail  enormous  financial  loss. 

We  pass  a  lofty  detached  rock  that  has  evidently 
been  violently  split  from  the  bluff  of  the  left  bank  and 
transported  right  across  the  river  by  some  local  con- 
vulsion, a  conspicuous  landmark  that  no  or  could  miss. 
Schwatka,  eagerly  consulting  his  list  of  .dvants,  calls 
it  after  a  prominent  member  of  the  Paris  Geographical 
Society,  but  it  was  "Svjuaw  Rock"  before  his  day  and 
it  is  "Squaw  Rock"  yet.  The  river  is  more  open  hen 
and  more  diversified,  and  gives  many  fine  arrangements 
of  mountain  and  water  as  the  steamboat  sweeps  around 
its  curves. 

We  are  now  on  the  confines  of  the  Yukon  Territory, 
and  as  we  approach  the  boundary-line  visitors  commonly 
crowd  the  decks  to  note  the  moment  when  they  shall 
pass  into  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  The  de- 
termination of  this  boundary-line  was  an  interesting  and 
not  very  easy  matter.  Schwatka's  commission  required 
him  to  make  a  rough  estimate  of  its  position,  but  only 
a  very  rough  estimate  indeed  could  be  based  upon  the 
dead  reckoning  of  the  raft's  drift,  and  I  cannot  find 
from  his  narrative  that  any  other  method  was  essayed. 


•  '  'I 


I    ^i 


■  m 


68 


THE   BOUNDARY-LINE 


Schwatka  placed  the  line  just  below  the  town  of  Eagle, 
and  the  bold  conical  bluff  that  rises  there,  now  called 
Eagle  Mountain,  he  named  Boundary  Butte;  an  error 
of  about  twelve  miles. 

In  1887  the  Canadian  Government  sent  William 
Ogilvie  to  make  an  accurate  determination  of  the  line 
at  its  intersection  of  the  Fortymile  and  Yukon  Rivers, 
and  of  that  undertaking  we  have  a  full  and  interesting 
account.  Taking  an  island  in  the  Chilkat  River,  the 
latitude  and  longitude  of  which  had  been  determined 
long  before,  as  a  base,  a  lint  was  run  from  point  to  point 
across  the  mountains  and  lakes  and  down  the  river, 
until  it  appeared  that  the  neighbourhood  of  the  boun- 
dary was  reached.  Here  Mr.  Ogilvie  with  his  assistants 
made  camp  for  the  winter  and  sat  down  to  determine 
by  astronomical  observations  the  position  of  the  141st 
meridian  west  from  Greenwich. 

Since  there  was  no  telegraphic  communication  with 
the  north  in  those  days,  the  modern  precise  method  of 
such  determinations  was  unavailable,  and  reliance  had 
to  be  placed  on  a  series  of  moon-culminations,  or  transits 
of  the  moon  over  the  meridian  of  the  place.  Of  these 
Ogilvie  secured  twenty-two,  and  from  them  was  able 
to  calculate  his  position  with  such  nicety  that  twenty- 
two  years  later,  when  the  telegraph-line  ran  along  the 
river  and  modern  methods  could  be  used,  the  Ogilvie 
line  was  found  to  be  only  a  few  score  of  yards  out. 

The  general  character  of  the  timber  along  the  Yukon, 
about  which  I  have  often  encountered  misconception  in 
unexpected  quarters  outside,  will,  I  think,  be  fixed  in 


MARKING  THE  LINE 


69 


the  reader's  memory  by  an  incident  which  Ogilvie  nar- 
rates. To  lighten  the  loads  that  must  be  packed  over 
the  pass  he  had  left  behind  the  massive  and  ponderous 
tripod  of  his  transit,  relying  upon  finding  a  tree  that 
would  serve  the  purpose,  since,  once  set  up,  it  would 
not  have  to  be  moved  again.  He  needed  a  tree  that 
should  be  twenty-two  inches  in  diameter  five  feet  from 
the  ground.  The  neighbourhood  of  the  boundary  was 
sought  over  diligently  for  three  days  for  such  a  tree 
without  avail,  and  he  had  to  make  shift  with  a  tree 
eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  the  only  one  that  could  be 
found  even  of  that  girth,  most  inconveniently  situated 
on  the  side  of  a  bluff;  most  inconveniently,  for  the  place 
of  the  tree  necessarily  determined  the  site  of  the  per- 
manent winter  camp,  which  had  to  be  close  to  the  ob- 
servatory. 

When  Ogilvie  had  finished  his  task,  a  lane  was  cut 
through  the  timber  to  the  summit  of  the  hill,  and  car- 
ried across  the  river  and  up  the  mountain  on  the  other 
side.  The  International  Boundary  Commission  cut  a 
similar  lane  when  the  final  determination  was  made, 
and  the  two  parallel  lines  stand  out  a  little  distance 
apart.  Ogilvie's  lane,  however,  begins  to  be  much  ob- 
scured by  underbrush. 

Crossing  this  line,  we  are  once  more  in  Alaska.  They 
are  strange  things  these  international  boundary-lines. 
The  rocks  and  trees  are  just  the  same  on  one  side  as  the 
other,  the  shore-line  is  continuous,  there  is  nothing  but 
this  artificial  vista  through  the  forest — yet  one  side  is 
subject  to  one  set  of  laws  and  the  other  to  another.    Cut 


f      I 


If!;- 
1 1  ■ 


70 


CUSTOMS  ABSURDITIES 


(-1 1 


■^■ 


some  trees  down  on  the  Canadian  side,  whipsaw  them 
into  lumber,  build  a  boat  with  the  same  and  launch  it 
on  the  water,  it  is  a  "British  bottom";  when  it  reaches 
Eagle   it  can  proceed  no  farther.     Tear  it  to  pieces, 
it  becomes  merely  "Canadian  lumber,"  on  which  there 
is  slight,  if  any,  duty.    It  may  now  be  built  into  a  boat 
again  and  the  voyage  resumed.    This  does  not  apply 
to  skiffs  and  such  small  craft,  but  it  does,  or  it  did  a  few 
years  ago  and  I  think  it  does  yet,  to  anything  larger. 
I  dare  say  the  reverse  is  true  and  that  a  similar  impedi- 
ment bars  the  entrance  to  Canadian  waters,  but  I  do 
not  know,  for  there  is  no  passage  of  such  craft  up-stream. 
It  all  seems  very  foolish  and  petty;  indeed,  a  man  who 
reflects  upon  things  must  see  much  that  is  foolish  and 
petty  about  the  whole  system  of  customs;  there  is,  more- 
over, an  unavoidable  sense  of  the  invasion  of  personal 
right  and  dignity  whenever  a  customs  officer  in  New 
York  rifles  a  trunk  in  search  of  what  it  is  thought  may  be 
concealed;  there  is  an  even  stronger  feeling  of  the  same 
kind  when  the  Canadian  officers  at  Whitehorse  pass 
their  hands,  however  gently,  over  the  bodies  of  out- 
going travellers  to  detect  the  smuggling  of  gold-dust, 
on  the  exportation  of  which  a  royalty  is  charged.    The 
whole  business  seems  an  anachronism;  it  seems  to  be- 
long  to  the  times  when  a  man  could  not  go  from  one 
place  to  another  without  a  passport;  when  every  pos- 
sible hindrance  was  thrown  around  the  movement  of 
men  or  merchandise;  when  every  little  stretch  of  the 
Rhine  had  its  own  exaction,  with  a  chain  across  the 
river  and  a  castle  on  a  rock,  to  enforce  it. 


MAINTAINING  A  PRINCIPLE  71 

Some  day  the  world,  however  much  it  seems  going 
backward  to-day,  will  resume  its  march,  and  reach  a 
point  of  comity  and  common  sense  where  it  will  sweep 
all  su'-h  vexatious  restrictions  away;  some  day  the 
time  w  ■  '  come  when  a  boat  may  navigate  what  waters 
it  pleas,  and  touch  at  what  points  it  will;  when  a  man 
may  sell  whatever  he  has  to  sell  wherever  he  can  sell 
it,  may  buy  what  he  wishes  and  take  it  where  he  likes. 

I  have  wondered  whether  the  customs  collection  at 
Eagle  pays  for  itself  nowadays,  or  whether  the  salaries 
and  other  expenses  of  collection  do  not  exceed  the  revenue. 
I  am  certain  they  do  on  the  Fortymile,  for  twenty  miles 
or  so  up  that  stream,  where  the  141st  meridian  cuts  it, 
there  is  a  little  American  custom-house  that  does  vir- 
tually no  business  at  all.  Yet  lest  some  miner  from  the 
American  side  should  go  down  to  the  mouth  for  his 
"outfit"  instead  of  crossing  the  hills  to  Eagle,  that  lonely 
little  post  with  its  exile  of  the  internal  revenue  is  still 
maintained.  Sometimes  the  grand  old  English  lexicog- 
rapher's famous  definition  of  "excise,"  on  which  the 
commissioners  of  excise  took  counsel's  opinion,  and 
were  advised  that  though  they  could  prosecute  him  for 
it  they  had  better  not,  appears  to  apply  almost  as  well 
to  "customs." 

But  we  are  in  an  "American  bottom,"  and  we  go 
slipping  by  American  trees  and  American  rocks,  through 
American  waters,  to  the  first  American  post  on  the 
Yukon,  the  town  of  Eagle,  and  here  we  lie  some  hours 
while  the  customs  examination  takes  place. 

Immediately  upon  Mr.  Seward's  purchase  of  Alaska 


72 


EARLY  AMERICAN  RULE 


in  1867  a  detachment  of  troops  was  sent  to  Sitka  and 
the  army  took  charge  of  the  country.    But  in  1877  the 
troops  were   entirely  withdrawn   and   for  seven  years 
there  was  no  sort  of  government  in  Alaska  or  of  Alaska 
whatever.    I  do  not  know  that  such  large  territory  be- 
longing to  a  great  civilised  power  was  ever  before,  in 
modern  times  at  least,  left  utterly  without  any  attempt 
at  government.    The  white  people  of  Sitka  had  to  call 
upon   a   British   mar^-of-war  to  rescue   them  from  an 
Indian  uprising  during  this  time.      When  Lieutenant 
Schwatka  came  down  the  Yukon  in  1883  he  says  that 
it  was  a  debatable  point  whether  his  expedition  was 
not  strictly  an  illegal  one  and  in  direct  violation  of  the 
President's  order,  since  the  executive  order  of  with- 
drawal had  provided  that  the  military  should  thence- 
forth exercise  "no  control  whatever"  in  the  Territory, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  send  in  a  military  party  that 
should  not  exercise  control  over  its  own  members.    In 
1884  a  governor  without  any  power  was  appointed  by 
the  President  and  the  laws  of  Oregon  were  spread  over 
the  Territory,  but  without  any  attempt  to  enforce  them. 
It   was    not    until    the    Klondike    excitement   that 
government  attention  was  drawn  to  Alaska,  and  then 
two  officers.  Captain  Ray  and  Lieutenant  Richardson, 
were  sent  in  to  select  suitable  sites  for  forts  in  the  in- 
terior.    Two  such  were  built.  Fort  Egbert  at  Eaple,  in 
1899,  and  Fort  Gibbon  at  Tanana,  in  1900,  garrisoned 
each  by  two  companies  of  infantry,  of  which  the  former 
was  abandoned  twelve  years  afterwards  and  the  latter 
still  reu.ains. 


THE  TOWN  OF  EAGLE 


73 


The  first  United  States  district  court  in  the  interior 
was  established  here  with  its  officers  shortly  after,  and 
Eagle  remained  for  a  few  years  the  centre  of  the  newly 
erected  civil  administration.  With  the  building  of  the 
much  more  considerable  town  of  Fairbanks  in  1904, 
howevti,  the  court  and  its  officers  were  transferred 
thither,  and  the  town  declined,  and  with  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  army  post  in  191 1  it  declined  still  more. 

Eagle  is  pleasantly  situated,  about  a  hundred  miles 
from  Dawson,  on  the  left  bank  of  a  picturesque  portion 
of  the  river,  with  an  attractive  view  up-stream  and  the 
fine  mountainous  bluff  that  has  been  referred  to,  rising 
right  out  of  the  river  just  below.  It  has  its  custom- 
house, its  court-house,  two  stores,  a  post-office,  and  an 
Episcopal  church  (for  we  have  left  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land behind  us  and  are  entered  upon  the  portion  of  the 
Yukon  served  by  her  American  daughter) — and  contigu- 
ous to  the  town,  just  below  it.  Is  the  military  compound 
with  Its  gaunt,  deserted  buildings.  Three  miles  up- 
stream, on  the  same  bank,  we  passed  unmentioned  an 
Indian  village  With  its  school  and  church.  This  native 
mission  and  the  white  town  are  served  by  the  same 
missionary. 

There  is  still  some  mining  on  the  Fortymlle  and  on 
the  Seventymile  below,  and  still  some  prospecting, 
though  this  is  probably  the  best-prospected  region  of 
Alaska,  and  as  a  port  of  entry  Eagle  has  some  official 
business;  enough,  altogether,  one  hopes,  to  maintain 
the  town  at  Its  present  stage. 

Soon  after  the  building  of  Fort  Egbert  much  govern- 


J 


74 


CALICO  BLUFF 


ment  interest  and  activity  were  aroused  in  favour  of 
an  "all-American  route"  to  the  interior  of  Alaska,  and 
a  trail  was  surveyed  from  Valdez  on  Prince  William's 
Sound  across  country  to  Eagle.  A  "strategic"  military 
telegraph  was  afterwards  constructed  along  the  line  of 
this  trail  and  was  maintained  for  a  number  of  years  at 
great  cost,  the  stations  being  provisioned  by  pack-trains. 
But  no  one  ever  used  the  "ail-American  route,"  and 
there  was  no  one  living  on  it  to  send  telegrams,  nor  any 
strategy  that  was  served  by  its  existence,  so  at  length 
both  were  abandoned.  The  line  still  stretches  across 
all  those  hundreds  of  miles  of  wilderness,  but  gradually 
the  wire  will  rust  and  the  poles  will  rot  and  fall,  and 
the  forest  will  close  in  on  the  right-of-way  clearing. 

Ten  miles  or  so  below  Eagle  a  high  bluff  is  passed 
that  has  a  very  remarkable  exposure  on  its  face  of  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  narrow  parallel  layers  or  strata 
of  varying  colour,  folded  ziuf  crumpled  until  they  roughly 
suggest  a  wavy  pattern  of  fabric,  from  which  appearance 
the  bluff  is  known  as  the  "Calico"  bluff.  When  one 
remembers  that  each  of  these  layers  represents  a  separate, 
slow  deposition  of  sediment  from  water,  and  that  some 
geologists,  working  back  from  the  measured  rate  of 
present  denudation,  or  removal  of  earth-surface  by  water, 
to  a  corresponding  rate  of  deposition,  reckon  six  thousand 
years  as  the  average  time  required  for  the  accumulation 
of  one  foot  of  sediment,  we  get  some  slight  hint  from  this 
bluff  of  the  age  of  the  crust  of  the  earth. 

I  never  pass  that  bluff  without  fresh  conjecture  as 
to  its  history,  without  wishing  that  I  knew  enough  about 


A  RIDDLE   IN   STONE 


7S 


geology  to  read  the  riddle  of  this  writing.  How  came 
these  layers  of  different  material,  imposed  one  upon 
the  other  with  perfect  uniformity  and  precision  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom  of  this  great  rock,  and  heaven  only 
knows  how  far  beneath  the  present  visible  bottom? 
That  it  was  a  continuous  deposit  the  sharp  division 
between  each  layer  forbids  us  to  believe. 

Was  it,  then,  an  ancient  sea-bed  that  by  some  mys- 
terious plutonic  clockwork  rose  above  the  water  when 
it  had  received  a  stratum,  and  then  sank  again  to  re- 
ceive another  .'—rising  and  subsiding  as  many  times 
as  there  are  individual  layers?  That  is  a  pretty  heavy 
tax  on  one's  credulity.  And  if  so,  whence  these  varia- 
tions in  its  colour,  and  therefore,  one  supposes,  in  the 
nature  of  the  deposit  1 

I  think  there  is  a  great  field  for  some  one  with  ade- 
quate learning,  and  with  brains  and  imagination  (which 
are  quite  other  matters)  to  occupy  with  books  about 
geology.  Is  there  any  other  subject  of  which  the  average 
man  of  education  and  culture  is  so  ignorant  ? — any  other 
subject  the  books  on  which  are  so  generally  dry  and 
technical  and  lifeless  ?  I  remember  with  pleasure  Hugh 
Miller's  "Old  Red  Sandstone"  and  "Testimony  of  the 
Rocks,"  as  a  boy  devouring  what  I  could  lay  hands 
on,  but  Hugh  Miller  was  a  man  of  letters  as  well  as  a 
geologist,  and  there  have  been  few  such.  It  is  not  al- 
together the  average  educated  man's  fault  that  he  is 
so  ignorant  of  this  great  subject. 

And  there  have  been  all  sorts  of  government  geol- 
ogists sailing  up  and  down  this  river  for  the  last  twenty 


M 


^\ 


76 


AN  EXTINCT  "CITY* 


■'■I 


yean,  and  printing  all  lorta  of  reports;  yet  lo  far  ai  I 
know,  and  I  try  to  keep  the  run  of  their  writings,  though 
I  certainly  do  not  pretend  to  read  them  all,  not  one  word 
about  this  striking  geological  feature  that  attracts  the 
notice  of  even  the  most  unobservant  visitor,  the  Calico 
Bluff,  has  ever  been  published.  One  would  th  nk  they 
would  glue  themselves  to  that  rock  until  they  had,  if 
not  decipherci'  its  story,  at  least  exhausted  Wiiat  they 
could  learn  from  it/  If  I  were  a  wealthy  man  I  would 
offer  a  considerable  prize  for  the  best  monograph  on  the 
Calico  Bluff. 

Fifteen  or  twenty  miles  farther,  on  the  left  bank, 
we  pass  the  mouth  of  the  Seventymile,  which  of  old 
was  counted  seventy  miles  from  Fortymile.  'Twas  a 
vicious  custom  this  place-naming  by  miles,  and  the  cause 
of  much  confusion.  Even  Ogilvie  falls  into  the  obvious 
error  of  calling  this  place  seventy  miles  from  Fort  Re- 
liance. At  the  mouth  of  this  stream  Star  City  was  built 
upon  the  occasion  of  a  stampede  in  1899  or  1900,  but  even 
the  few  deserted  cabins  I  knew  ten  years  ago  have  fallen 
and  gone,  and  Star  City  has  no  place  at  all,  except  upon 
some  of  the  maps  that  are  reprinted  without  revision. 


*ThU  passage  must  not»  however,  be  taken  as  though  stricture  upon 
the  members  of  the  Alaskan  Geological  Survey  were  intended;  their  de- 
partment has  its  policy  and  they  have  their  instructions,  and  I  recognise, 
even  though  I  may  regret,  that  both  must  be  concerned  primarily  with  the 
"economic  development"  of  the  country,  and  that  metalliferous  and  car- 
boniferous formations  engage  their  attention  almost  exclusively.  In  pro- 
portion to  its  stinted  resources,  the  Alaskan  Geological  Survey  is  probably 
the  most  eiScient  department  of  government  service  in  Alaska  to-day.  If 
I  had  the  power  I  would  turn  over  to  its  chief.  Doctor  Alfred  Brooks — say 
the  cost  of  maintaining  the  army  post  at  Tanana;  then  we  would  have  maps 
and  surveys  i— and  perhaps  a  monograph  on  the  Calico  Bluff  a>  well. 


SHEEP  CREEK  MOUNTAINS  77 

Now  we  come  in  sight  o  the  bold,  rugged  .nountaini 
of  Sheep  Creel;*  on  the  right  hand,  mountain!  that 
retain  snow  upon  their  tops  well  into  the  summer,  and 
are  conspicuous  by  their  height  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance up  and  down  the  river.  The  international  bound- 
ary is  very  close  to  the  'iver  along  here,  and  it  is  cer- 
tainly fortunate  that  it  dovi,  not  actually  cross  it  again, 
or  we  should  have  double  rows  of  custom-houses  to 
deal  with;  and  what  the  two  nations  would  have  done 
had  the  Yukon  wound  back  and  forth  along  the  141st 
meridian  instead  of  conveniently  drawing  away  from  it 
to  the  westward,  is  an  amusing  subject  for  speculation 
which  the  reader  may  pursue  if  he  wish.  No  white  man 
knew  anything  about  the  course  of  the  Yukon  when  that 
boundary-line  was  agreed  upon,  though  Sir  Alexander 
Mackenzie,  it  is  said,  missed  knowing  it  only  through 
the  timidity  of  an  Indian  guide  as  far  back  as  1789, 
when  he  explored  the  river  that  bears  his  name. 

So  far  as  imposing  mountain  masses  are  concerned, 
the  finest  portion  of  the  Upper  Ramparts  lies  just  be- 
fore us  now.  I  think  the  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
or  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  of  river  from  Eagle 
to  Circle  would  be  counted  exceedingly  picturesque 
anywhere  in  the  world.  Each  bend  brings  a  change  in 
the  composition;  now  the  sharp  peaks  of  the  Sheep 
Creek  mountains  dominate  the  scene,  now  the  enormous 
bulk  of  the  cliffs  below  Nation,  now  the  lofty  table- 
land of  the  bluffs  opposite  Washington  Creek. 

•  It!  aty  Indian  name  of  Tatonduk  hai,  I  am  lorry  to  iay,  almoit  en- 
tirely lapied. 


'1^ 


"    ;n 


_i 


7« 


DRIFTWOOD  AND  NAVIGATION 


Y 


ThcK  name*,  Eagle,  Star  City,  Nation,  Wathington 
Creek,  Fourth  of  July  Creek,  are  relict  of  the  patriotic 
exuberance  with  which  citizen*  of  the  Unitrd  State* 
who  had  felt  thein*elve*  cramped  in  Daw*on,  gave  ex- 
pression to  their  emotion*  when  once  more  they  were 
settled  in  United  States  territory.  "Nation"  puzzled 
me  fo  a  while,  but  I  think  it  belongs  to  that  group; 
there  \.  .e  other  nations,  I  suppose,  but  only  one  Nation. 

Every  river  of  considerable  length  must  in  time  of 
freshet  gather  a  large  amount  of  driftwood,  but  in  the 
great  rivers  uf  the  north,  draining  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  square  miles  of  dense  primeval  forests,  it  is  a  more 
striking  feature  than  in  those  which  flow  through  oc- 
cupied and  cultivated  lands. 

At  any  high  level  of  water  the  visitor  will  find  the 
river  burdened  and  its  navigation  hindered  by  forest 
debris  in  immense  quantities,  and  in  every  stage,  from 
trees  in  full  leaf  to  bleached  and  rotten  logs.  Sometimes 
the  driftwood  is  so  thick  that  steamboats  are  unable 
to  proceed  and  must  tie  up  to  the  bank  until  the  water 
subsides  and  the  hindrance  abates. 

At  first  sight  the  visitor  is  likely  to  be  impressed 
with  a  feeling  of  the  great  waste  of  wood  that  is  going 
on;  but  when  he  pursues  his  voyage  to  the  barren  regions 
of  the  mouth  of  the  river  and  of  the  adjacent  shores  of 
Bering  Sea,  he  will  see  that  there  is  no  more  v'^iste  than 
necessarily  accompanies  the  great  operations  of  nature. 
This  driftwood  of  the  Yukon  is  the  only  wood  th"  Eskimo 
knows;  thrown  up  in  piles  upon  the  desolate  beaches 
of  treeless  seas,  the  Eskimo  makes  his  igloo  beside  them. 


ITS  QUANTITY   EXPLAINED 


T) 


Juft  as  the  lalt  water  aendt  up  iti  myriads  of  fish 
to  feed  the  people  of  the  interior,  so  the  interior  sends 
down  its  myriads  of  logs  to  warm  the  people  of  the  coast; 
and  to  some  it  will  seem  merely  the  accidental  philan- 
thropy of  the  blind  forces  of  nature,  and  to  others  the 
loving  providence  of  an  all-seemg  God  working  through 
those  forces. 

Not  all  at  once  does  the  driftwood  reach  the  sea; 
the  first  freshet  may  no  more  than  lift  it  from  its  bed 
and  carry  it  down  some  tributary  of  the  great  river. 
So  soon  as  the  water  drops  the  driftwood  lodges  on  a 
sand-bar  and  lies  there  until  another  rise  comes  to  trans- 
poi  it  a  little  farther.  It  may  take  several  years  to 
complete  the  voyage,  hence  the  great  part  of  the  wood 
upon  the  arctic  coast  is  much  weathered  and  bleached. 

The  reader  will  consider  that,  while  an  ordinary  rise 
in  the  river  gathers  little  more  wood  than  lies  close  around 
its  banks,  any  unusually  high  water  reaps  a  much  richer 
harvest.  The  innumerable  little  creeks  and  -ivuLts 
are  swollen  far  beyond  their  usual  size  and  reach  bark 
deep  into  the  heart  of  the  forest,  floating  old  windfalls 
and  moss-grown  trunks  that  have  lain  prone  for  years. 
When  the  rise  is  gener'il  throughout  much  of  the  drain- 
age-basin of  the  river — an  unusual  occurrence,  since  that 
basin  is  so  great — the  quantity  of  driftwood  brought 
down  is  prodigious,  and  for  a  while  any  use  of  the  river 
for  navigation  is  impossible. 

Collecting  on  sand-bars  and  on  the  shores  of  islands, 
the  driftwood  is  an  ever-present  and  unhandsome  feature 
of  the  Yukon  in  every  part  of  its  long  course. 


m 


I',    ' 


So 


AN  UNKNOWN  LAND 


The  Yukon  River  is  now  flowing  between  two  other 
important  rivers,  its  tributaries  at  later  stages  of  its 
course.  If  we  went  up  Sheep  Creek,  forcing  our  way 
through  the  difficult  caiion  near  its  mouth  and  into 
the  heart  of  the  fine  craggy  mountains  that  have  been 
referred  to,  and  so  out  beyond,  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles 
altogether,  we  should  come  to  the  Nahoni  Lakes,  from 
which  the  Porcupine  River  takes  its  rise.  This  river 
flows  a  little  east  of  north  until  it  is  well  past  the  67th 
parallel,  and  then  makes  a  great  sweep  to  the  south- 
west, falling  into  the  Yukon  at  Fort  Yukon  just  on  the 
arctic  circle. 

The  country  thus  enclosed  is  one  of  the  least  known 
parts  of  the  continent.  The  141st  meridi?n  passes  through 
the  middle  of  it,  and  the  line  of  that  meridian  has  been 
run  with  the  utmost  exactness  from  the  Gulf  of  Alaska 
to  the  Arctic  Ocean  by  a  joint  commission  of  Canadian 
and  United  States  engineers,  a  vista  being  cut  through 
the  forest  the  whole  way  and  bronze  and  concrete  monu- 
ments set  up  at  prominent  points;  altogether,  it  is  said, 
one  of  the  most  difficult  and  creditable  pieces  of  survey 
work  and  frontier  delimitation  on  record.  For  a  few 
miles  on  either  side  of  that  line  the  country  is  of  course 
known;  the  rest  is  quite  unknown  and  unmapped,  any 
details  on  the  maps  in  use  being  conjectural. 

In  the  Geographical  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geograph- 
ical Society  for  September,  1916,  Charles  Camsell,  of 
the  Canadian  Geological  Survey,  classes  the  Canadian 
portion  of  this  region  amongst  the  "unexplored  areas" 
of  continental  Canada,  and  the  part  belonging  to  Alaska 
is  in  the  same  category. 


NATION  SETTLEMENT 


8i 


Sparse  bands  of  Indians  live  along  some  of  the  tribu- 
taries, notably  on  the  Big  Black  River,  fishing  them  and 
hunting  over  the  adjacent  hills;  there  is  a  quota  of  white 
men,  as  well  as  of  aborigines,  trapping  over  a  consider- 
able part  of  this  country — much  of  the  best  Fort  Yukon 
fur  comes  thence — but  it  has  never  been  even  roughly 
delineated  and  geographically  it  is  unknown.  It  is  said 
to  be  particularly  full  of  bears  and  wolves. 

In  the  opposite  direction  from  the  Yukon,  that  is, 
looking  west  instead  of  east,  the  Tanana  River  flows 
parallel  with  the  Yukon  for  several  hundreds  of  miles, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  miles  away,  taking 
its  bend  of  approach  just  below  Fairbanks.  In  contrast 
with  the  country  to  the  east,  this  region  west  of  the  Yukon 
is  one  of  the  best  known  in  the  north.  Reconnaissance 
surveys  have  been  carried  almost  all  over  it,  and  the 
maps  of  the  "  Eagle  Quadrangle,"  the  "  Fortymile  Quad- 
rangle" and  the  "Circle  Quadrangle"  are  careful  and 
useful  pieces  of  work. 

The  settlement  at  Nation  has  dwindled  to  not  much 
more  than  a  road-house  and  its  appurtenances,  though 
some  small  store  may  still  be  maintained;  it  was  de- 
pendent on  mining  on  the  Nation  River  and  some  neigh- 
bofving  creeks,  of  which  little  remains.  The  headwaters 
of  the  Nation  River  (it  is  no  more  than  a  large  creek) 
interlock  with  the  headwater  streams  of  the  Fishing 
Branch  of  the  Porcupine,  and  at  this  point  I  undi'r- 
stand  that  Porcupine  water  can  be  reached  in  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  the  Yukon. 

Washington  Creek,  on  the  opposite  (left)  bank  some 
twenty  miles  below,  is  chiefly  notable  as  the  scene  of 


'■<  ^?l 


<     1 

)| 

1 

Ik 

1 

i 

1 

I; 

i  ' 

82 


AN  ALASKAN  DIANA 


useless  expenditure  in  coal-mining  by  eastern  capitalists 
about  1900.  A  track  was  laid  across  the  flats  back 
to  the  coal-measures,  and  the  visitor  who  scans  the  bank 
narrowly  as  the  steamboat  swings  around  the  bend  will 
see  what  the  elements  have  left  of  a  locomotive,  or  trac- 
tion engine  standing  near  the  bank.  There  was  a  road- 
house  there  in  my  time,  kept  by  a  lady  who  is  said  to 
have  had  the  interesting  habit  of  taking  shots  with  a  rifle 
at  people  who  went  along  the  river  trail  in  winter  and 
would  not  stop  at  her  road-house,  biit  I  cannot  speak  of 
this  from  personal  experience,  though  I  well  remember 
the  intimidating  and  cajoling  placards  she  posted  on  the 
trail,  a  rival  road-house  nine  miles  below  being  the  excit- 
ing cause.  The  gradual  decay  of  winter  travel  on  the 
Yukon  has  put  an  end  to  such  amenities  of  competition, 
and  Washington  Creek  is  quite  deserted. 

Eight  miles  below,  Charley  Creek  comes  in  on  the 
right  bank,  and  I  am  sorry  this  stream  has  lost  its  native 
name  of  Kandik,  because  there  is  a  Charley  River  a 
few  miles  below,  on  the  opposite  side,  with  which  it  be- 
comes confused. 

Just  above  Charley  Creek  was  a  native  village  named 
from  the  same  "Chief  Charley"  who  was  sponsor  for 
the  stream.  It  was  there  in  Schwatka's  time,  though  he 
puts  it  on  the  western  instead  of  the  eastern  bank,  and 
it  stood  until  the  phenomenally  high  water  of  the  "break- 
up" of  1914  washed  it  completely  away,  whereupon  the 
handful  of  natives  removed  to  Circle.  Just  below  the 
mouth  of  Charley  Creek,  where  the  river  takes  a  sharp 
bend  to  the  right  and  then  to  the  left,  is  the  rival  road- 


»  (f 


THE  CHARLEY  RIVER 


83 


house  referred  to.  This  part  of  the  river  is  much  subject 
to  flood,  owing  to  the  configuration  of  the  channel,  which 
lends  itself  to  the  jamming  of  the  ice,  and  this  particular 
road-house  keeper  is  not  infrequently  camped  upon  the 
roof  of  his  road-house  during  "break-up"  time.  A  mile 
or  two  below  the  road-house  the  steamboat  passes  close 
beside  the  narrow  opening  of  Caiion  Creek,  a  mere  slit 
in  the  mountains  which  has  such  a  mysterious  look  from 
the  river  that  I  have  long  wanted  to  explore  it,  but  have 
never  had  opj    rtunity  of  leisure. 

The  Charley  River,  which  enters  on  the  left  bank 
some  ten  miles  below,  though  it  approaches  its  con- 
fluence by  meanders  through  flat  land  so  inconspicuously 
as  to  be  easily  missed,  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
streams  tributary  to  the  Yukon.  It  is  navigable  for 
some  considerable  distance  by  poling-boats  and  has  sev- 
eral creeks  on  which  a  little  desultory  mining  is  done. 
Tis  walls  are  sheer  lofty  mountains  of  much  rugged  ir- 
regularity of  form,  frequented  by  wild  sheep;  and. 
bend  by  bend,  coming  down  seventy-five  or  eighty  miles 
of  it  on  a  cross-country  journey  from  the  Tanana  a  few 
years  ago,  I  was  struck  with  its  ever-varying  beauty 
and  romantic  charm.  I  am  not  willing  to  say  it  is  the 
most  picturesque  river  in  Alaska,  because  I  do  not  know 
all  the  rivers  of  Alaska;  but  I  know  a  good  many  and  I 
know  none  that  surpasses  it.  The  whole  region  between 
the  Yukon  and  the  Tanana  is  in  the  path  of  the  migra- 
tion of  the  caribou,  and  its  greater  elevations  all  harbour 
mountain-sheep.  On  the  journey  just  referred  to  we 
found  the  entire  bed  of  the  Charley  River,  from  bank 


'    M 


84 


AN.MAL  LIFE 


■I 


i' 


to  bank,  and  even  up  to  the  first  mountain  benches  on 
either  side  whenever  they  were  accessible,  for  fifty  miles, 
trodden  hard  and  solid  by  innumerable  hoofs  of  caiibou, 
while  every  here  and  there  lay  a  dead  one,  killed  by  a 
band  of  wolves,  full-fed  and  wanton,  that  was  evidently 
following  the  herd  and  polling  down  the  stragglers.  In 
some  cases  no  attempts  had  been  made  to  eat  the  ani- 
mals, their  throats  had  been  cut  and  the  carcasses  left, 
and  we  chopped  off  frozen  hind  quarters  and  cooiied 
them  for  our  dogs.  I  am  of  opinion  that  every  year  the 
wolves  kill  more  caribou  in  Alaska  than  all  the  hunters 
put  together. 

At  any  point  along  the  Yukon  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
see  bears  prowling  along  the  bank,  or  picking  a  way 
amongst  the  driftwood  of  the  beach.  Sometimes  a  she 
bear  with  a  cub  or  two  will  be  overtaken  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  the  bear  usually  takes  no  notice 
whatever  of  the  steamboat,  appearing  not  even  to  see  it 
unless  the  captain  attracts  her  attention  by  blowing  the 
whistle.  I  have  watched  such  a  family  group  through  the 
field-glasses,  amused  by  the  pranks  of  the  cubs  and  the 
smart  cuffs  by  which  their  conduct  was  regulated  from 
time  to  time. 

The  sight  of  moose  swimming  the  river  is  even  more 
common,  and  from  my  own  experience  I  should  judge 
that  the  region  we  are  now  passing  through  is  more 
used  by  them  for  water  passage  than  any  other.  In- 
deed I  am  convinced  thac  the  big  game  of  the  region  be- 
tween Eagle  and  Circle  has  greatly  increased  of  late 
years,  perhaps  owing  to  the  decay  of  population,  and 


IS 


ARCHDEACON  McDONALD'S  DISCOVERY      85 


with  it  has  come  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of  bears 
and  wolves. 

Woodchopper  Creek,  on  which  there  is  profitable 
mining,  Webber  Creek,  and  several  others  on  which 
gold  has  been  found,  though  not  in  paying  quantities, 
are  passed  on  the  left  bank,  and  in  this  region  are  some 
fine  mountainous  reaches. 

We  approach,  however,  an  end  of  all  mountains  for 
the  first  time  since  our  journey  began.  Let  us  first  notice 
for  a  moment  a  curious  important  creek,  much  more 
er  "tied  to  the  name  river  ihan  many  that  bear  it,  that 
began  to  run  parallel  with  the  Yukon  a  little  distance 
off,  ever  since  Charley  River  was  passed,  and  will  con- 
tinue its  parallel  course  for  another  hundred  miles,  with 
meanderings  that  will  double  that  distance,  until  it  dis- 
charges itself  forty  mile  below  Fort  Yukon.  It  is  called 
Birch  Creek. 

Now  there  was  a  Church  of  England  clergyman  at 
Fort  Yukon  in  the  early  sixties,  when  the  Hudson 
Bay  post  flourished  and  fur  was  king,  who  in  his  jour- 
neys across  country  ministering  to  his  scattered  Indian 
flock,  found  gold  on  one  of  the  tributaries  of  Birch  Creek. 
The  Reverend  Robert  McDonald,  afterwards  Arch- 
deacon of  the  Yukon — and  his  name  is  still  held  in  the 
highest  veneration  by  the  natives — told  of  his  discovery, 
and  letters  exist  to^ay  in  vhich  it  was  written  about, 
but  no  one  at  Fort  Yukon  cared  about  gold-seeking  much 
more  than  Archdeacon  McDonald  did  himself.  The 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  left  and  the  post  at  Fort  Yukon 
changed  hands  and  decayed,  and  McDonald  returned 


I 


M 


1.  / 1  \ 


\([ 


\ , 


i 


86 


THE  FIRST  GOLD-SEEKER 


to  the  Mackenzie,  but  the  story  lingered  and  passed 
from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  "Preacher  Creek"  on  the 
map,  which  is  certainly  not  the  tributary  of  Birch  Creek 
on  which  McDonald  scooped  up  gold  with  a  spoon, 
stands  as  evidence  of  it.  In  all  probability,  as  I  am  told 
by  those  familiar  with  that  whole  region,  it  was  the 
creek  now  called  Mastodon  on  which  the  discovery  -•  as 
made. 

Arthur  Harper  (the  first  man  who  ever  came  to  the 
Yukon  country  seeking  gold*)  reached  Fort  Yukon 
from  the  Mackenzie  by  way  of  the  Porcupine  in  1873 
and  heard  the  story;  although  he  was  not  then  able  to 
follow  it  up,  it  stayed  in  his  mind,  and  while  he  was 
running  the  store  with  McQuesten  at  the  Fortymile 
came  the  opportunity  to  investigate  the  region  it  con- 
cerned. So  he  grub-staked  tv/o  Russian  half-breeds, 
Sarosky  and  Pitka  (Dall  had  brought  up  Pitka  from  . 
Nulato  to  cook  for  him  in  1867— I  mention  this  not  be- 
cause I  suppose  it  will  interest  the  reader  but  because 
I  am  gratified  at  being  able  to  identify  him,  for  I  know 
the  man),  and  these  two  men  found  gold  on  Mastodon 
in  1893,  and  from  that  strike  arose  the  Circle  City 
camp. 

I  hope  this  has  not  been  tedious  but  I  could  not  make 
it  clear  in  fewer  words,  and  the  connection  is  exceed- 
ingly interesting  to  my  mind. 

We  approach  Circle  City:  the  mountains  have  al- 
ready receded  on  the  left  bank  and  will  presently  cease 
abruptly  on  the  right,  and  we  shall  swing  out  clear  of 

*  Ogilvie. 


CIRCLE  CITY 


87 


al!  elevations  of  the  earth  into  the  Yukon  Flats.  At  the 
very  beginning  of  them.  Circle  City  raises  its  graceful 
wireless-telegraph  tower  and  spreads  its  line  of  build- 
ings along  the  water-front. 

The  town  was  built  in  1894,  on  ne  nearest  river- 
point  to  the  diggings,  for  Birch  Creek  is  only  six  or  seven 
miles  from  the  Yukon  here,  and  there  were  some  seventy- 
five  men  building  cabins  that  summer.  It  received  its 
name  because  it  was  thought  to  be  on  the  arctic  circle, 
from  which  it  is  in  reality  distant  some  eighty  m;les  by 
the  river  and  about  fifty  in  a  straight  line.  Creek  after 
creek  was  found  that  bore  gold  and  at  the  end  of  the 
next  season  good  pay  had  been  found  on  nine,  so  that 
there  was  a  rush  to  Circle  from  the  interior  camps  and 
from  the  outside  as  well,  and  the  town  grew  until  it 
boasted  itself  the  largest  log-cabin  town  in  the  world 
and  claimed  a  population  of  thirty  hundred.* 

There  must  have  been  some  active  and  intelligent 
men  in  that  camp.  A  Miners'  Association  was  formed 
with  constitution  and  by-laws,  and  a  gorgeous  painted 
silken  banner  and  a  circulating  library  of  several  thou- 
sand volumes  procured,  many  of  which  still  remain  at 
the  place,  though  most  have  been  scattered  since  the 
association  lapsed.  I  was  struck  when  I  first  examined 
the  library  (it  was  then  almost  intact)  by  the  wise  and 
comprehensive  choice  that  had  been  exercised.  Some 
one  familiar  with  many  fields  of  literature  had  a  hand 
in  selecting  those  books. 

In  1896  when  Bishop  Rowe  came  over  the  Chilkoot 

•  Ogilvie. 


88 


SHORT-LIVED  FLORESCENCE 


tV 


Pass  with  a  pack  on  his  back  to  undertake  the  super- 
vision of  the  missionary  work  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  Alaska,  and  visited  Circle,  the  place  was  at  the  height 
of  its  prosperity  and  a  church  and  a  hospital  were 
started. 

But  the  florescence  of  Circle  was  short-lived.     The 
first  news  of  the  Klondike  strike  did  not  cause  much 
stir,  but  when  reports  of  the  wealth  beyond  the  dreams 
of  avarice  that  had  been  discovered  came  one  upon  the 
other,  and  then  sober  confirmations  of  tiie  jnost  fabulous 
of  them,  there  was  a  stampede  up  the  riv<;r  that  left 
most  of  those  multitudinous  cabins  empty.    They  were 
never  reoccupied.    The  extent  of  the  Circle  diggings  had 
already  been  reached  and  no  more  discoveries  were  made 
in   the  district.     Those   who  outstayed   the   Klondike 
stampede  joined  the  stampede  to  Fairbanks  five  or  six 
years  later,  and  to-day  Circle  shares  the  fate  of  all  placer- 
mining  towns,  which  after  their  brief  period  of  expan- 
sion and  feverish  prosperity,  sink  into  a  steady  decline 
from  which  there  is  no  revival.    The  last  time  I  was 
there  the  gorgeous  silken  banner  stood,  covered   with 
dust  and   mildew,  in  the  corner  of  a  disused   mission 
building,  the  constitution  and  by-laws  hung  cobwebbed 
in  a  broken  frame  on  the  wall,  the  books,  injured  by 
flood-water,  were  anybody's  that  cared  to  take  them 
away.     The  empty  cabins  are  gone:  in  this  country  of 
extreme  winter  cold,  and  roaring  stoves,  there  is  always 
a  useful  way  to  dispose  of  empty  cabins. 

Circle  City  may  now  have  a  resident  population  of 
twenty-five  whites,  with  perhaps  ten  times   as   many 


I 


NOCUOUS  DESUETUDE 


89 


working  out  on  the  various  creeks,  some  of  them  fifty 
miles  away,  and  drawing  their  supplies  from  the  town. 
It  has  also  some  sixty  or  sixty-five  Indians,  in  a  village 
that  adjoins,  with  the  usual  unfortunate  result  of  such 
adjunction. 

These  little,  decadent,  bi-racial  places  present  very 
difficult  problems  to  those  concerned  in  the  effort  to 
supply  their  religious  needs. 

Here  are  a  commissioner,  a  deputy  marshal,  a  govern- 
ment native  school,  a  native  Episcopal  church  served 
by  a  native  catechist,  and  a  group  of  mission  buildings 
not  in  present  use,  besides  a  couple  of  stores,  a  road- 
house,  and  a  saloon.  Add  a  few  residence  cabins  and 
you  have  Circle  City. 


M 


.til 


i 


i 


m< 


ii  I 


li 


CHAPTER  III 

THR  YUKON  FLATS 

Just  before   reaching  Circle  City  the   river  enter* 
the  wide  level  region  known  as  the  Yukon   Flats  and 
for  t.early   two    hundred    and    fifty    miles    pursues    its 
tortuous  course   therein.     This   curious  valley  has   its 
greatest  stretch  in  a  N.  E.  and  S.  W.  direction  from  the 
lower  ramparts  of  the  Yukon  to  the  lower  ramparts  of 
the   Porcupine,  a  distance  in  a  straight  line  of  about 
two  hundred  miles,  and  its  greatest  width  in  a  N.  W. 
and  S.  E.  direction  from  the  Chandelar  Gap  to  Circle 
City,  a  straight-line  distance  of  about  eighty  miles.     It 
is  roughly  triangular  in  shape,  its  longest  line  being  its 
northerly  boundary,  and  it  emb.aces  an  area  of  about 
thirty   thousand   square   miles.     The   river  enters  this 
triangular  area  at  the  point  of  its  southern  angle,  pushes 
its  way  N.  W.  almost  to  the  middle  of  the  triangle  (where 
For*  Yukon  is  situated)  and  leaves  the  area  almost  at 
the  point  of  its  westerly  angle,  where  the  abandoned 
post  of  Fort  Hamlin  is  perched  on  the  hillsic    in  nearly 
the  same  latitude  as  Circle  City,  where  it  entered. 

So  much  any  geography  book  would  furnish;  but 
the  abrupt  change  from  the  steep  bluffs  and  high  moun- 
tains which  have  lined  the  river  ever  since  its  navigation 
was  begun  at  Whitehorse,  to  the  boundless  horizon  of 
the  open  level  country,  from  the  narrow,  confined  stream 
of  the  river  flowing  betwixt  its  immovable  barriers,  to 


SWIFT  CURRENT  IN   FLATS 


9« 


the  multitude  of  channels  and  aloughs  s">t  with  innumer- 
able islands,  this  sudden  change  never  fails  to  surprise 
the  visitor  on  his  first  voyage.  Since  entering  the  coun- 
try a  thousand  miles  back  he  has  seen  nothing  but  moun- 
tains, now  he  will  not  see  even  a  hill  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles. 

So  closely  does  this  region  resemble  the  approach 
to  the  delta  country  of  many  rivers,  that  it  is  hard,  on 
a  first  visit,  to  get  rid  of  the  feeling  that  beyond  the 
maze  of  low  islands  ahead  must  lie  the  sea. 

It  would  naturally  be  supposed  that  a  river  thus 
suddenly  poured  from  narrow  confines  upon  a  wide  plain 
and  spreading  itself  out  into  many  channels,  would  lose 
its  swift  current  and  meander  sluggishly.  No  less  an 
authority  than  Major-General  Greely,  in  his  generally 
excellent  "Handbook  of  Alaska,"  states  this  to  be  the 
case;  but  the  reverse  is  true.  So  long  ago  as  1883, 
Schwatka,  floating  down  the  Yukon  on  the  vyage  ihat 
has  been  so  often  referred  to,  but  will  not  be  referred 
to  much  more,  notices  with  surprise  that  the  current 
in  the  Flats  does  not  slacken,  and  deduces  therefrom  the 
great  depth  of  the  river  in  the  ramparts  f'om  which  it 
has  just  escaped. 

Some  of  the  swiftest  reaches  of  the  whole  river  are 
indeed  in  the  Yukon  Flats,  and,  in  addition,  this  region 
has  special  difliculties  of  navigation  of  its  own.  The 
soil  being  almost  entirely  frozen  muck  or  sand,  the  swift 
water,  sweeping  along  the  banks,  thaws  the  ground  it 
comes  in  immediate  contact  with  and  undercuts  it  so 
that  great  masses  are  continually  falling  into  the  stream. 


III 


92 


DIFFICULT  NAVIGATION 


i 


bearing  their  growing  trees  with  them.  Sometimes 
one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  feet  will  be  removed 
at  one  place  in  a  season.  Moreover,  the  speed  of  the 
river  scoops  out  its  bed  and  shifts  great  bodies  of  sand 
and  gravel  from  place  to  place. 

The  steamboat  channel  is  thus  continually  changing, 
for  of  the  numerous  channels  there  is  always  one  that 
carries  the  depth  and  volume  of  water,  and  this  one  is 
the  steamboat  channel.  In  twenty-four  hours  the  steam- 
boat channel  may  change,  may  pile  up  a  new  bar,  may 
forsake  a  bank  that  it  has  been  cutting  and  throw  its 
water  upon  the  other  side,  may  abandon  one  branch 
of  the  river  altogether  and  pour  itself  into  another.  It 
is  thus  necessary  to  maintain  a  pilot  who  goes  nowhere 
else  than  up  and  down  between  Fort  Yukon  and  Circle; 
coming  up  in  his  little  launch,  sounding  as  he  runs,  ship- 
ping his  ^raft  on  board  a  steamer  at  Circle  and  guiding 
the  vessel  down  through  the  channel  he  has  just  veri- 
fied. Sometimes  he  takes  a  steamboat  up,  but  more 
commonly  takes  it  down,  for  it  is  always  on  the  down- 
stream trip  that  the  greatest  danger  is  met.  A  steam- 
boat cautiously  picking  her  way  up-stream  will  not  hit 
a  bar  very  hard,  and  has  the  force  of  the  current  to  help 
her  get  off  should  she  strike,  but  a  boat  that  hits  a  bar 
going  down-stream  is  piled  upon  it  and  held  there  by 
the  same  force.  The  present  pilot,  Julius  Stankus,  has 
been  engaged  in  this  one  occupation  for  a  great  many 
years,  and  knows  the  eighty  or  ninety  miles  of  river 
under  his  charge  with  a  minuteness  of  detail  that  would 
certainly   be   called    "meticulous"   by   any   newspaper 


il 


FLATS  SCENERY 


93 


man  who  should  write  about  it  nowadays,  for  to  most 
of  those  who  pass  through  it,  the  country  from  one  end 
of  the  Flats  to  the  other  "all  h  k?  alike." 

It  is  in  truth  a  most  moi.  /.onous,  virf  j-y,  featureless 
region;  level,  winding  bank?  covered  viii  i  dense  spruce- 
trees  all  about  the  same  height,  -Tr'.^ch  away  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  reach;  and  these  banks,  continually  under- 
mined and  falling,  have  usually  a  fringe  of  overhanging 
moss  and  trees  drooping  at  every  angle  from  the  per- 
pendicular to  the  horizontal,  the  boughs  of  those  that 
are  prone  gathering  and  detaining  an  evil-looking  scum 
from  the  turbid,  swirling  waters.  There  is  something 
very  melancholy  about  a  live,  prone  tree,  and  as  they 
switch  back  and  forth  in  the  water  they  seem  to  be 
waving  their  leafy  arms  as  though  to  summon  aid  in 
their  hapless  plight.  Vast,  shapeless  sand-bars,  piled 
with  bleaching  driftwood,  sometimes  occupy  most  of  the 
view  and  show  how  the  river  continually  deflects  and 
changes  its  own  channel.  Usually  the  sand-bars  lie 
away  from  the  deep  water,  but  sometimes  the  river  is 
seen  returning  and  eating  away  a  bar  it  has  thrown  up, 
like  a  dog  returning  to  his  vomit. 

Even  those  with  an  eye  for  locality  find  it  difficult 
to  identify  points  in  the  Yukon  Flats  after  repeated  jour- 
neys; there  is  a  total  absence  of  salient  landmarks,  and 
a  persistence,  through  all  the  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  of  the  same  general  appearance. 

The  thoughtful  traveller,  gliding  smoothly  down- 
stream in  perpetual  sunshine,  and,  it  may  be,  in  weather 
uncomfortably  warm,  should  yet  be  able  to  entertain 


( : 


In. 


94  SHORT-LIVED  COMFORT 

conjecture  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  of  winter  travel 
in  this  region,  when  the  river  is  frozen  and  the  ice  and 
the  banks  are  covered  with  snow,  when  fierce  storms 
rage  and  obliterate  the  trail,  or  the  "strong  cold"  set- 
tles down  with  iron  grasp  upon  the  earth,  when  the  sun 
does  but  rise  to  the  horizon  to  disappear  again,  when  here 
and  there  open  water,  so  swift  that  it  cannot  freeze,  sends 
clouds  of  steam  into  the  air,  or  thin  ice,  with  the  steam- 
boat channel  underneath,  sets  a  trap  for  the  unwary. 

It   is  indeed  well  for  the  traveller  from  temperate 
climes  who  passes   down  this   river  in  the   heyday  of 
summer  and  would  gather  some  just  and  general  im- 
pression of  the  country,  to  remind   himself  frequently 
how  brief  is  the  season  which  he  is  enjoying;  to  remmd 
himself  that  navigation  of  any  sort  is  possible  durmg 
little   more   than  four  months;    that  by  the   middle  of 
October  ice  is  running  freely  in  the  river,  and  by  the  ist 
of  November  at  the  latest  the  river  is  frozen  over,  not  to 
open  again  until  the  middle  of  May;  to  remind  himself 
that  by  just  how  much  the  measure  of  daylight  and  sun- 
shine overpasses  that  to  which  he  is  accustomed,  by  just 
so  much  is  it  lacking  at  the  other  extreme  of  the  year; 
that  the  scrubby,  stunted  spruce  forest  that  lines  the 
bank  everywhere  is  the  growth  probably  of  a  full  century, 
and  that  here  in  the  Yukon  Flats  is  experienced  every 
winter  a  greater  degree  of  cold  than  any  that  Peary 
registered  on  his  whole  journey  to  the  North  Pole.* 

.Every  winter  temperatures  lower  than-6o  F.  (""^  '"■J"""'".,"";^^. 
lower)  a  e  recorded  at  the  meteorological  s,at>on  at  F°«  \">L°"' ^'^''1^'' 
kw  temperature  I  can  find  recorded  in  ^"'^"^XL^uVouihu 
I  have  myself  recorded -7J  F.  on  the  northeastern  edge  of  the  Yukon  Hats. 


Tn[.   ^■^Kll^    [■'r.vT':. 


4 
■  [-1 

4 


ii 


Pl.AY   EMAMPMKNT   (IF    I\t)I\\    (  Fni.DRKN    AT    ioRF    \l  K(t\, 


SOME  COMPENSATIONS 


95 


The  impression  which  the  Yukon  Fiats  made  upon 
the  first  white  man  who  ever  voyaged  through  them  (so 
far  as  there  is  record  or  reason  to  believe)  is  commonly 
the  impression  they  make  upon  the  trnveller  to-day. 
"  I  must  say  that  as  I  sat  smoking  my  pipe,  my  face  be- 
smeared with  tobacco-juice  to  keep  at  bay  the  mosqui- 
toes still  hovering  in  clouds  around  me,  my  first  impres- 
sions of  the  Yukon  were  anything  but  favourable.  I 
neirer  saw  an  uglier  river,  everywhere  low  banks,  appar- 
ently lately  overflowed,  with  lakes  and  swamps  behind, 
the  trees  too  small  for  buildiiig,  the  water  abominably 
dirty,  and  the  current  furious."  So  wrote  Alexander 
Hunter  Murray,*  tLe  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  factor 
who  came  across  from  the  Mackenzie  River,  by  way  of 
the  Porcupine,  in  1847,  and  built  the  trading-post  at 
Fort  Yukon. 

Yet  the  Yukon  Flats  are  not  without  attractive 
phases.  The  low,  level  horizon  leaves  an  immense  ex- 
panse of  sky,  and  almost  the  summer  through  this  sky 
is  filled  with  great  masses  of  bold  cumulus  clouds,  of  a 
lustrous  whiteness,  that  pass  along  in  a  stately  panorama. 
It  does  not  require  a  very  vivid  imagination  to  see  ro- 
mantic Alpine  landscapes,  with  peaks  and  glaciers  and 
vast,  dark,  cavernous  recesses;  to  see  celestial  cities  with 
domes  and  walls  of  pearl,  and  palaces  of  marble;  to  see 
colossal  similitudes  of  prancing  steeds  tossing  their 
flowing  manes,  issuing  forth  to  "fulmine  ,  er  the  field"; 
and  "fulmine"  indeed  they  are  very  likely  to,  for  at 

•  "Journal  of  the  Yukon,"  1847-8;  publication  of  the  Canadian  Archives, 
No.  4,  Otuwa. 


■Mi 


!'"'] 


!;i 


I  J 


i 


I/;  I 


96 


FORT  YUKON 


'^)>i 


ft  ■ 


any  moment  there  may  be  a  brief,  violent  thunder- 
storm with  drenching  rain.  Where  there  is  little  to 
look  upon  below,  the  eye  naturally  turns  above,  and  it 
is  rarely  in  summer  that  the  skies  in  the  Flats  have  not 
some  glistening  pageant  to  display  against  the  back- 
ground of  a  deep-blue  sky.  The  clouds  are  the  chief 
feature  of  the  summer  landscape  in  the  Yukon  Flats, 
and  sometimes  they  give  it  a  dignity  and  a  beauty  that 
will  long  be  remembered. 

Fort  Yukon  is  situated  at  the  most  northerly  point 
reached  by  the  Yukon  River,  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
Flats,  and  just  before  the  river  leaves  its  general  north- 
west course  to  pursue  a  general  southwest  course  to  its 
mouth.  To  the  ordinary  tourists  it  is  rather  a  squalid- 
looking  little  place  of  many  native  cabins,  a  church,  a 
hospital  and  two  or  three  stores  where  the  best  furs  and 
the  best  beadwork  on  the  river  may  be  bought.  It  is 
chiefly  notable  to  them  for  the  multitude  of  native  dogs 
that  flock  hungrily  to  the  bank  and  take  up  their  posi- 
tion exactlj'  opposite  the  galley  as  soon  as  the  boat  ties 
up,  and  there  fight  and  scramble  for  the  scraps  that  are 
thrown  out  by  the  cooks.  The  dogs  are  half-starved 
in  the  early  summer  and  their  owners  themselves  are. 
none  too  well  fed,  for  the  salmon  have  not  yet  com- 
menced to  run  and  the  winter  stores  are  pretty  generally 
exhausted.  Ducks  form  the  staple  Indian  food  at  this 
season,  and  dogs  will  not  eat  duck  unless  they  are  very 
hard  pressed  for  food  indeed. 

If  the  place  have  other  interest  for  the  ordinary 
tourist  it  is  because  of  its  geographical  position.    Lying 


li 


/ 


III 

i 


h  \ 


THE  MIDNIGHT  SUN 


97 


about  a  mile  north  of  the  arctic  circle,  a  visit  during  the 
end  of  Tune  will  permit  those  who  are  favoured  with 
clear  weather  to  see  thr  sun  at  midnight.  Annually, 
for  the  last  few  years,  special  boat-loads  of  tourists  have 
come  down  the  Yukon  as  far  as  this  point  with  no  other 
purpose  than  to  see  this  sight;  they  are  locally  known  as 
"sunners."  Almost  anywhere  in  the  Yukon  Flats  the 
sight  may  be  seen,  for  although  by  bald  astronomical 
theory  it  is  confined  to  regions  within  the  arctic  circle, 
yet  the  refraction  of  the  atmosphere,  which  raises  the 
sun's  disk  in  appearance  a  degree  or  so  above  its  real 
position,  extends  it  to  the  regions  immediately  adjacent 
also,  where  there  is  sufficiently  low  horizon.  Part  of 
the  sun's  disk  may  even  be  seen  at  midnight  on  mid- 
summer day  at  Circle  City,  which  is  below  the  66th 
parallel,  by  standing  upon  the  top  of  a  two-story  house. 
Beyond  Circle  City  the  mountains  interfere.  Strange 
as  perpetual  daylight  and  sunshine  are  to  those  from 
lower  latitudes,  they  soon  become  matter  of  course  to 
the  dwellers  in  Alaska,  and  it  is  '^ard  to  escape  a  certain 
demoralising  influence  which  the  suspension  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  day  and  night  seems  to  exert.  When 
all  the  hours  are  bright,  there  is  no  particular  reason 
for  going  to  bed  at  one  of  them  rather  than  at  another; 
when  work  may  be  carried  on  in  all  of  them  indifferently, 
there  is  no  necessary  time  for  beginning  or  ending.  And 
since  the  mosquitoes  are  not  quite  so  bad  when  the  sun 
is  low  upon  the  horizon  as  when  he  has  climbed  higher 
in  the  sky,  the  midsummer  usage  of  the  Indians,  which 
tends  to  become  the  usage  of  the  scattered  whites  also, 


*   Hi 


*,;  j 


'i 


i 


98  THE  JAMESTOWN  OF  THE  YUKON 

is  to  sleep  during  the  hours  that  would  be  the  daylight 
hours  elsewhere  and  be  up  and  about  during  the  hours 
that  elsewhere  would  be  the  hour  of  darkness.  Like  the 
Snark,  they  "frequently  breakfast  at  afternoon  tea. 
And  dine  on  the  following  day." 

But  to  the  traveller  who  is  conversant  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  country.  Fort  Yukon  has  other  interest  than 
its  dogs  and  its  daylight;  it  is  the  site  of  the  oldest  Eng- 
lish-speaking settlement  on  the  river,  and  thus  has  a 
certain  Jamestown  sentiment  about  it.    True,  the  Rus- 
sians made  a  settlement  five  hundred  miles  down-stream 
at  Nulato  some  ten  years  earlier,  which  is  like  the  Spanish 
settlement  at  St.  Augus.-ne  in  Florida,  and  they,  like 
the  Spaniards,  are  long   •  t.ce  gone.    So  Fort  Yukon  is 
in  some  sort  the  Jamestown  of  the  Yukon.    A  mile  away 
from  the  village-and  a  pleasant  walk  if  the  mosquitoes  . 
be  not  too  bad-is  the  old  Hudson's  Bay  burying-ground, 
where  graves  still  bear  headboards  with  dates  in  the 
So's  and  6o's;    certainly  amongst  the  first  white  men  s 
graves  in  the  interior  of  Alaska. 

The  post  at  Fort  Yukon  was  the  farthest-flung  of 
all  the  Great  Company's  agencies,  and  it  was  known  at 
the  time  it  was  built  that  it  was  beyond  the  confines  ot 
British  America,  intruding  into  Russian  territory.  One 
of  the  best-built  and  most  complete  of  all  the  company  s 
posts,  "its  commodious  dwellings  for  officers  and  men 
had  smooth  floors,  open  fireplaces,  glazed  windows,  and 
plastered  walls;  its  gun-room,  fur-press,  ice  and  meat 
wells  were  the  delight  and  astonishment  of  visitors. 

.  Beetles  Wilson,  "The  Great  Company"  (Dodd,  Mead  and  Co..  New 
York,  1906).  P-  50J- 


YUKON'S  COURSE  FIRST  UNKNOWN         .^g 

It  is  certainly  interesting  to  recall  that  when  Murray 
built  Fort  Yukon  he  did  not  know,  nor  did  any  one  else 
know,  that  the  Yukon  River  was  identical  with  the  river 
at  the  mouth  of  which  the  Russians  were  seated.    Murray 
thought  the  Yukon  turned  northward  and  discharged 
into  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  he  conjectured  that  the  Col- 
ville  River,  the  mouth  of  which  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany's explorers,  Dease  and  Simpson,  reached  and  dc- 
scribed  in  1837,  was  in  fact  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon, 
finding  support  for  his  conjecture  in  the  confused  ac- 
counts,  brought  to  him  by  Indians  at    second    hand, 
of  the  great  northern  tributary  of  the  Yukon,  the  Koyu- 
kuk,  some  of  the  headwater  streams  of  which  do  ac- 
tually interlock  with  tributaries  of  the  Colville.    It  must 
be  remembered  that  the  Russians  at  St.  Michael  and 
Nulato  did  not  know  the  name  "Yukon"  at  all,  but  used 
the  Eskimo  name  for  the  river,  the  Kwikpak,  and  Mur- 
ray thought  th.n  the  Russians  reached  their  depots  on 
the  lower  river,  not  by  the  mouth,  but  by  a  tributary 
stream  even  as  he  had  reached  the  Yukon. 

As  late  as  1865,  when  the  first  exploring  party  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  reached  St.  Michael, 
Robert  Kennicott,  its  scientific  director,  and  his  col- 
leagues used  to  have  great  discussions  as  to  whether 
the  Yukon  and  the  Kwikpak  were  one  and  the  same  river, 
or  the  Yukon  and  the  Colville  one  and  the  same. 

Within  a  few  years  of  the  establishing  of  this  post, 
however,  the  venturing  of  trading-parties  from  Fort 
Yukon  down  the  river  as  far  as  what  is  now  Tanana, 
where   they    met   trading-parties  coming  up  from  the 


li']  • 


•  i' 


100  FORT  YUKON  BECOMES  AMERICAN 
Russian  post  at  Nulato,  made  known  to  those  most 
interested,  though  not  to  the  world  at  large,  the  course 
and  extent  of  the  Yukon  River.  The  printed  narrative, 
give  credit  to  a  half-breed  Russian,  Ivan  Simonson 
Lukeen,  sent  by  the  Russians  from  St.  Michael  to  m- 
vestigate  the  intrusion  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
for  the  first  journey  up  the  river  thus  far.    This  was  m 

When  the  United  States  bought  Alaska  from  Rus- 
sia, in  1867,  it  became  necessary  to  determine  whether 
or  not  Fort  Yukon  were  within  the  purchased  territory, 
and.  early  in  the  summer  of  1869,  Captain  Raymond  of 
the  engineer  corps  of  the  U.  S.  army  was  despatched 
from  San  Francisco  for  that  purpose,  and  travelled  up 
the  Yukon  from  St.  Michael  in  a  steamboat  belongmg 
to  some  San  Francisco  traders  who  were  patriotically 
resolved  to  supplant  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  shou  d 
they  prove  to  be  intruders.    Tourists  today  can  scarcely 
fail  to  be  interested  in  knowing  that  this  steamboat,  the 
Yukon,  was  the  first  ever  to  disturb  the  waters  of  the 
great  river.    There  are  yet  old  Indians  who  remember 
the  consternation  it  caused  amongst  the  native  popula- 
tion, u      r    » 
Finding  by  his  astronomical  observations  that  tort 
Yukon  was  well  within  the  newly  acquired  territory, 
Captain  Raymond  raised  the  American  flag  and  served 
notice  upon  the  officers  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
that   they   must   immediately   retire.     The   company  s 
representatives  thereupon  abandoned  the  post  and  with- 
drew up  the  Porcupine  River,  but  so  difficult  is  the  de- 


.  (fi 


QUEER   BOUNDARY  MAKING  loi 

termination  of  position  in  the  wilderness  without  ai- 
tronomical  instruments  that  the  post  was  removed  three 
different  times  before  the  border  was  reached,  and  on 
the  recent  exact  running  of  the  boundarv-line  by  a  joint 
American  and  Canadian  commission  it  was  discovered 
that  the  New  Rampart  House,  the  third  and  last  of  their 
establishments  on  the  Porcupine,  was  no  more  than  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  or  so  within  British  territory. 
The  story  is  eloquent  chiefly  of  the  little  value  at- 
tached to  all  this  northern  country  in  the  early  decades 
of  the  last  century.    The  Russians  certainly  had  no  sort 
of  claim  to  the  interior  of  Alaska  based  upon  occupation 
or  even  discovery;   but  it  was  not  thought  worth  making 
any  to^o  about;   and  having  regard  only  to  the  settle- 
ments along  the  coast,  Mr.  Stratford  Canning  for  the 
tnghsh  crown  and  Count  Nesselrode  for  the  Russian 
crown  ruled  a  line  across  the  blank  space  of  the  map 
and  England  took  to  the  east  thereof  and  Russia  to  the 
west.    Count  Nesselrode  is  remembered  by  most  people 
if  he  be  remembered  at  all.  in  connection  with  a  rich 
frozen   pudding,   just   as   the   great   Hungarian   patriot 
and  harrier  of  the  Turks.  Hunyadi  Janos.  is  remembered 
m  connection  with  an  aperient  water,  but  Nesselrode 
was  a  very  important  man  in  his  day,  and  his  day  was 
a  long  one.     To  the  historical  student  there  is  much 
interest  m  the  tie  that  connects  the  diplomatist  of  the 
peace  of  Tilsit,  the  colleague  of  Talleyrand  and  Met- 
ternich,    the   reactionary   manager   of   Russia's   foreign 
affairs  for  the  forty  years  from  Waterloo  to  Sebastopol 
with  the  future  Alaska.    If  Nesselrode's  ruler  had  slipped 


H 


I 


\,r>     1 


102  GEOGRAPHICAL  CENTRES 

a  little,  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police  might  have  had 
a  post  at  Fort  Yukon  in  the  days  of  the  Klondike  rush, 
which  is  the  next  important  period  in  the  history  of  the 
place. 

For  when  the  Great  Company  withdrew,  the  place 
declined  in  importance;  other  traders  came,  but  they  did 
not  understand  native  traffic  and  were  not  able  to  hold 
the  people  together.  Much  of  the  fur  catch  went  up  to 
the  Rampart  House,  and  while  the  point  never  ceased 
to  be  occupied  by  natives  and  never  failed  of  a  certain 
amount  of  trade,  it  lacked  the  systematic  working  of 
the  company  and  its  corps  of  experienced  servants. 
Maps  of  the  last  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  (and 
even  some  of  to-day  that  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  them- 
selves) mark  Fort  Yukon  in  its  place  at  the  junction 
of  the  Yukon  and  the  Porcupine,  and  write  the  word 
"abandoned"  after  it. 

It  is  curious  to  consider  what  it  is  that  determines 
the  inclusion  of  a  place  in  a  map.  I  have  often  seen 
maps  of  the  world  that  included  Fort  Yukon,  and  vir- 
tually every  map  ever  made  of  the  North  American 
continent  marks  the  place  even  though  it  omit  populous 
cities  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  I  have  an  ex- 
cellent map  of  the  continent  before  me  as  I  write  that 
includes  Fort  Yukon,  but  does  not  include  Fort  Worth 
in  Texas  or  Fort  Leavenworth  in  Kansas— for  instance. 
The  reason  in  this  case  is  partly  the  wide  expanse  of 
country  with  no  other  name  that  can  possibly  be  inserted, 
and  the  traditional  dislike  of  cartographers  to  blank 
spaces,  and  partly  the  geographical  position  of  the  place, 


KLONDIKE  ANARCHY  ,03 

right  on  the  arctic  circle  and  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Yuicon  with  one  of  its  chief  tributaries.  But  that  legend 
"abandoned"  written  after  the  name  Fort  Yukon  al- 
ways amused  me;  it  is  like  writing  a  word  and  striking 
It  out  again,  and  yet  inserting  the  word  and  the  erasure 
both  in  the  fair  copy. 

The  great  stampede  to  the  Klondike  of  1897  and  1898 
brought  nothing  but  harm  to  the  native  people  of  Alaska, 
and  to  those  of  Fort  Yukon  in  particular.    The  naviga- 
tion season  of  1897  came  to  a  close  with  many  steamboats 
far  short  of  their  destination.     Boats  of  a  draught  too 
great  for  the  shallow  waters  of  the  Flats,  tied  up  for  the 
winter  at  this  place,  and  Captain  Ray,  of  the  U.  S.  army, 
who  was  sent  with  Lieutenant  Richardson  to  investi- 
gate conditions,  reports  three  hundred  and  fifty  white 
men  wintering  at  Fort  Yukon  and  is  not  at  all  com- 
plimentary in  his  references  to  the  character  of  many 
of  them.    At  one  time  he  had  to  seize  merchandise  left 
here  en  route  to  Dawson,  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States,  to  prevent  the  looting  of  it.    These  were  the  days 
when  there  was  no  government  at  all  in  Alaska.    Although 
the  country  had  been  for  thirty  years  in  the  possession 
of  the  United  States,  our  inelastic  system  had  not  per- 
mitted the  setting  up  of  any  attempt  at  governing  the 
Territory. 

No  extraordinary  insight  is  necessary  to  realise  the 
situation  during  that  winter  and  the  next.  Given  a 
large  number  of  white  men  with  little  or  nothing  to  do, 
quantities  of  whisky  (and  there  were  quantities,  though 
at  that  time  its  importation  into  Alaska  was  nominally 


m 


h.,  I 


104 


A  GREAT  MISSIONARY 


forbidden)  and  a  timid  and  docile  native  people,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  there  was  gross  debauchery  and  general 
demoralisation.  It  took  Fort  Yukon  a  long  time  to  re- 
cover from  the  evil  living  of  those  winters  and  the  evil 
name  that  followed. 

But  it  has  recovered;  and  the  place  has  much  present 
interest  to  those  who  are  concerned  with  the  condition 
of  the  native  people  of  Alaska.  Missionary  work  has 
been  carried  on  here  from  a  period  a  few  years  after  the 
original  Hudson  Bay  settlement.  When  Captain  Ray- 
mond came,  in  1869,  he  found  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  residence,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bompas, 
afterwards  Bishop  Bompas  of  the  Yukon  Territory. 
Those  who  still  enjoy  the  Pickwick  Papers  will  like  to 
learn  that  the  father  of  Bishop  Bompas  was  the  dis- 
tinguished English  lawyer,  Sergeant  Bompas,  from  whom 
Dickens  drew  the  character  of  Sergeant  Buzfuz,  who 
"with  a  fat  body  and  a  red  face"  represented  the  plain- 
tiflF  in  the  famous  case  of  Bardell  v.  Pickwick. 

But  the  name  that  will  never  be  forgotten  at  Fort 
Yukon  is  that  of  Archdeacon  McDonald,  who  translated 
the  whole  Bible,  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the 
Hymnal,  and  other  devotional  literature  into  the  In- 
dian language  of  this  place,  translations  which  are  still 
in  constant  use.  For  the  last  eight  or  nine  years  a  mis- 
sionary physician  has  been  maintained  here,  and  in 
1915  a  commodious  and  well-equipped  native  hospital 
was  built  (after  long,  vain  efforts  to  induce  the  govern- 
ment to  pay  some  attention  to  the  health  of  the  Yukon 
natives)  by  the  efforts  of  Bishop  Rowe  and  his  clergy. 


ll  I 


SPARSE  POPULATION  ,05 

It  is  exceedingly  gratifying  to  be  able  to  state  that  these 
persistent  and  intensive  labours  for  the  upbuilding  of 
the  native  people  have  not  been  without  result.  Fort 
Yukon  is  not  only  the  largest  native  village  on  the  Yukon 
River,  but  it  is  also  the  healthiest.  While  at  most  other 
villages  the  death-rate  exceeds  the  birth-rate,  at  this 
place  the  balance  is  ;;reatly  the  other  way.  The  steadily 
diminishing  death-rate  in  the  following  table  is  evidence 
that  the  Yukon  Indian,  as  a  race,  still  has  vitality. 


DEATHS 

BIRTHS 

1914 

14 
II 

8 
7 
4 

20 
18 
20 
20 
27 

I9I3 

I9I4 

I9I5 

I9I6 

While  the  figures  of  the  last-mentioned  year  are 
much  too  good  to  be  maintained,  its  extraordinary  pre- 
ponderance of  births  will  help  to  raise  the  average. 

The  observant  traveller  thus  far  down  the  Yukon 
River  must  have  been  struck  with  the  exceeding  sparse- 
ness  of  inhabitants,  and  will  understand  that  the  land 
in  general  is  still  an  arctic  wilderness,  with  no  immedi- 
ate prospect  of  becoming  anything  else.  There  is  no 
reason  why  the"  interior  of  Alaska  should  not  support 
two  or  three  times  its  present  native  population;  it  is  as 
good  an  Indian  country  as  ever  it  was  and  does  not, 
of  late  years,  certainly,  even  tend  to  become  otherwise! 
In  the  last  decade  the  white  population  of  the  interior 
has  sensibly  dwindled,  as  one  placer-mining  camp  after 


iif^ 


io6 


RIVER  EROSION 


if 

III*; 


another  has  decayed,  and  this  is  particularly  the  case  in 
the  upper  half  of  the  river.  The  big  game  of  Alaska  is 
not  seriously  invaded,  if  it  be  not  actually  increasing  as 
I  believe  to  be  the  case:  the  salmon  still  swarm  up  the 
streams,  the  fur-bearing  animals  are  still  to  be  had  for 
the  trapping;  yet  on  the  whole  the  natives  diminish.  It 
will  be  understood,  therefore,  how  very  encouraging  the 
results  that  have  been  attained  at  Fort  Yukon  are  to 
those  who  have  the  survival  of  the  native  population  at 
heart. 

One  drawback  the  place  has,  as  a  place  for  the  erec- 
tion of  permanent  expensive  buildings  such  as  this  hos- 
pital: it  is  -ivbject  to  constant,  and,  at  times,  rapid  and 
violent,  ep  L-^on  of  the  bank.  In  the  summer  of  1916 
the  river-channel  changed  in  the  capricious  way  it  uses 
in  the  Flats  and  threw  the  whole  force  of  the  rapid  stream 
against  the  bank  on  which  the  town  is  built.  More  than 
a  hundred  feet  was  cut  away  during  that  summer,  and 
the  stores,  the  warehouses,  the  road-house,  the  mission 
house,  and  many  cabins  had  to  be  torn  down  and  rebuilt 
farther  back. 

It  should  be  understood  that,  speaking  broadly  again, 
the  whole  soil  of  the  interior  of  Alaska  i:  frozen  solidly 
from  the  top  to  bed-rock,  however  deep  that  bed-rock 
may  be,  save  for  the  three  feet  or  so  that  thaws  beneath 
the  moss  that  covers  the  surface  during  the  summer. 
This  solidly  frozen  soil  of  Alaska  (and  the  same  is  true 
of  northern  Siberia)  is  a  puzzle  to  the  geologists.  How 
came  these  enormous  bodies  of  gravel  and  sand  and 
muck,  deposited  by  water  in  the  course  of  ages,  some- 


f  :■{. 


\    I.ITTl.l:    Mi.TFMj; 


'  i 


EFFECT  OF  THAWING 


107 


\    it 


times  three  or  four  hundred  feet  deep,  so  solidly  frozen  ? 
If  the  layer  brought  down  by  the  floods  of  the  summer 
froze  during  the  following  winter,  why  did  it  not — free 
of  moss  covering  as  it  must  have  been — thaw  out  in  the 
next  summer  ere  is  received  another  deposit  ?  The 
streams  have  no  power  until  long  after  the  snow  is  gone, 
and  the  flowers  are  blooming  before  the  ice  goes  out. 
Even  the  superimposition  of  a  glacial  ice-sheet  will 
hardly  account  for  such  deep-seated  gelation,  and  it  is 
found  in  areas  that  give  no  sign  of  glacial  activity. 

Whatever  the  cause,  the  reader  must  think  of  the 
Yukon  Flats  in  particular  as  solidly  frozen  ground  through 
which  the  river  has  cut  a  way  by  thawing,  and  in  which 
it  is  still  continually  cutting  by  thawing.  The  most 
casual  observer  must  have  noticed  the  black,  glistening, 
dripping  banks,  in  some  places  undermined  into  cavernous 
recesses  here  and  there  along  the  river's  course.  The, 
level  at  which  the  rapid  water  impinges  upon  the  frozen 
soil,  is  the  line  where  the  great  cutting  is  going  on,  al- 
though all  exposed  bank  is,  of  course,  thawing  in  the 
sun's  rays  and  the  warm  atmosphere,  and  when  this 
circular  saw  cutting  at  the  water's  level  has  gone  far 
enough,  the  whole  mass  topples  into  the  river,  with  its 
trees  and  its  moss.  Nothing  seems  to  stop  it;  the  frozen 
gravel  or  sand  has  no  cohesion  save  that  which  the  frost 
gives;  when  it  thaws,  it  becomes  loose  gravel  or  sand 
again,  and  is  quickly  swallowed  up  by  the  river  and 
transported  by  its  swift  channel  to  the  nearest  point 
at  which  it  happens  to  be  depositing  a  bar  or  sand- 
bank. 


>y 


io8 


FORT  YUKON'S  IMPORTANCE 


ii 


i 


I 


The  frozen  soil  makes  any  sort  of  revetment  work 
exceedingly  difficult,  for  piles  cannot  be  driven  without 
first  thawing  each  hole  by  steam  the  full  depth  to  which 
the  pile  must  go  down.  And  the  massive  character  of 
the  ice  that  the  river  carries  out  in  the  spring  and  the 
high  water  that  always  accompanies  it,  would  probably 
tear  away  any  such  work  that  was  attempted.* 

Besides  being  the  most  considerable  village  of  natives 
on  the  Yukon  River,  Fort  Yukon  is  a  metropolis  and 
trading  point  for  many  outlying  settlements.  The 
Porcupine,  the  Chandalar,  the  Big  and  Little  Black 
Rivers,  Birch  Creek,  the  Christian  River,  are  all  con- 
fluent with  one  another  or  with  the  Yukon  in  this  neigh- 
bourhood, and  all  have  a  certain  Indian  population, 
which  resorts  to  Fort  Yukon  on  the  great  festivals  of 
Christmas  and  the  Fourth  of  July,  and  brings  its  furs 
to  the  stores  to  exchange  for  "outside"  grub,  ammuni- 
tion, and  the  white  man's  wares  generally,  on  which  it 
tends  to  grow  more  and  more  dependent.  A  number 
of  white  men,  the  greater  part  married  to  native  women, 
also  engage  in  trapping  upon  these  rivers  and  their  wide- 
spread tributaries,  and  use  (and  sometimes  abuse)  the 
town  on  their  occasions  of  conviviality  and  business. 
Thus  it  has  come  about,  to  close  the  account  of  the 


•We  are,  however,  undertaking  banL-uving  work  at  Fort  Yukon  of 
another  kind  with  some  confidence  in  itf  success;  building  out  at  intervals 
into  the  river  triangular  piers  of  logs  by  means  of  which  we  hope  to  deflect 
the  current  away  from  the  bank.  Such  device  has  proved  effective  on  other 
rivers,  and  by  seeking  to  control  only  the  lower  stages  of  water  (at  which 
the  rapid  cutting  always  takes  place)  we  hope  we  can  so  construct  the  piers 
that  the  flood-water  carrying  out  the  ice  will  pass  over  them,  without  injui^ 
ing  them. 


BEAVER  CITY  ,09 

place,  that  Fort  Yukon  is  the  most  important  fur  mart 
in  Alaska. 

Upon  leaving  Fort  Yukon  the  river  takes  the  south- 
west  as  its  general  course,  instead  of  the  northwest, 
which  direction  it  has  hitherto  steadily  maintained. 
For  another  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  or 
thereabouts  it  flows  through  the  Flats  with  many  channels 
and  amidst  many  islands,  though  there  are  not  so  many 
of  either  as  between  Circle  and  Fort  Yukon.  The  same 
general  characteristics  are  maintained,  the  same  monot- 
ony is  displayed. 

About  five  miles  below  Fort  Yukon  the  river  re- 
ceives one  of  its  important  tributaries,  the  Porcupine, 
from  the  northeast,  which  brings  from  its  tributary  the 
Old  Crow  perhaps  the  most  northerly  water  that  reaches 
the  Yukon;  and  twenty  miles  or  so  below  this  con- 
fluence, the  Chandalar  is  received  from  the  northwest. 
Like  all  the  tributaries  received  in  the  Flats,  these  streams 
discharge  into  sloughs  and  not  into  the  main  channel 
of  the  river,  and  their  mouths  will  be  unnoticed  unless 
they  be  specially  pointed  out.  The  Porcupine  and  the 
Chandalar  will  receive  special  attention  later,  and 
need  no  ruore  than  mention  here. 

Some  eighty  miles  below  Fort  Yukon  on  the  right  or 
north  bank  of  the  river,  an  abortive  attempt  at  a  town 
is  reached,  named  Beaver,  or  Beaver  City.  This  place 
owes  its  existence  to  the  gold  discoveries  on  the  Chandalar 
River,  and  particulariy  to  some  quartz  prospects  in  which 
a  New  York  congressman  was  interested;  its  decay  fol- 
lowed the  abandonment  of  those  prospects  (temporarily. 


^. 


i 


H 


no  FISH-WHEELS 

at  any  rate)  after  a  good  deal  of  money  had  been  ex- 
pended upon  them,  and  the  Alaskan  Road  Commission 
had  been  induced  to  grade  a  road  to  them.  It  still  main- 
tains a  little  store,  and  a  few  men  prospecting  on  the 
Chandalar  and  its  tributaries  procure  their  supplies  here, 
A  forlorn,  aged  Eskimo  couple,  related  to  the  wife  of  the 
storekeeper,  are  sometimes  all  the  rest  of  the  population. 
During  the  summer  one  or  two  dog  ranches  are  main- 
tained along  the  bank  by  white  men  and  the  animals  are 
boarded  at  so  much  a  head  and  fed  upon  salmon. 

The  visitor  will  see  a  number  of  such  dog  ranches  as 
he  travels  the  Yukon.  Hard  by  is  a  fish-wheel,  slowly 
turning  in  the  current  and  groaning  as  it  turns,  its  net- 
work arms,  or  "buckets"  as  they  are  called,  seining  the 
little  patch  of  water  into  which  they  dip  for  the  salmon 
laboriously  pursuing  their  way  up-stream.  A  tent 
stands  on  the  bank,  or  maybe  a  cabin;  long  racks  are 
covered  with  dull  red  salmon;  at  the  water's  edge  is  a 
rough  blood-stained  table  where  the  fish  are  cleaned; 
a  skiflF  is  moored  near  by  or  drawn  up  on  the  shingle, 
and  all  along  the  earth  of  the  bank,  sometimes  to  the 
number  of  several  hundred,  the  dogs  are  tethered,  each 
one  bound  to  a  stake  from  which,  it  may  be,  he  will 
never  be  released  until  his  master  comes  for  him  in  the 
fall.  In  many  cases  a  dog  has  dug  himself  a  hole  in 
which  he  may  partially  'scape  the  persecutions  of  the 
mosquitoes  and  flies. 

The  lot  of  the  Alaskan  work  dog  is,  in  general,  a 
hard  one.  When  the  snow  is  gone  and  his  winter's  labours 
are  over,  he  might,  one  would  think,  look  forward  to  a 


HARD  FATE  OF  DOGS  m 

period  of  rest  and  comfort  until  the  return  of  winter 
renders  sled  travel  possible  again.  His  summer  should 
be  a  time  of  "sweet-doing-nothing"  as  the  Italians  say, 
that  should  repay  him  for  the  aching  shoulders  and  sore 
feet  and  whip-lashed  flanks  of  the  winter  trail.  But, 
indeed,  the  ordinary  Alaskan  dog,  had  he  power  of  pro- 
spection,  would  look  forward  to  the  winter  during  his 
summer  purgatory.  Chained  to  a  stake,  month  after 
month,  all  through  the  summer  heats  with  their  venom- 
ous insect  pests,  the  length  of  his  chain  the  measure  of 
hi3  movements,  his  heavy  coat  a  source  of  continual 
discomfort,  the  natural  eager,  active  disposition  of  the 
animal  is  curbed  and  goaded  into  a  sullen  ferocity  by 
this  unmitigated  restraint,  this  ceaseless  irritation. 

If  the  needle  of  the  mosquito  cannot  penetrate  the 
dense  coat  of  the  dog,  it  finds  a  vulnerable  point  around 
the  eyes,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  a  dog's 
eyes  so  swollen  from  their  stings  as  to  be  almost  closed, 
and  raw  and  bleeding  from  constant  rubbing  with  b^^ 
paws. 

The  greater  part  of  the  dogs  that  are  "boarded"  at 
fish  camps  in  the  summer  are  the  mail  dogs,  the  dogs 
who  carry  the  U.  S.  mai!  up  and  down  the  river  and 
across  country.  They  are  probably  the  hardest  worked, 
and,  on  the  whole,  the  hardest  treated  of  all  our  dogs. 
Where  one  driver  will  be  thoughtful  of  them  and  kin  1 
to  them,  another  will  be  careless  and  brutal,  and  the 
driver,  in  either  case,  r  ust  exact  from  them  the  re- 
quired task. 

An  ordinary  sane  traveller  will  not  venture  out  if 


fir 


III  SOME  DOG  PROBLEMS 

the  thermometer  be  below  -50'  F.;  but  whatever  the 
temperature,  the  mail  muit  go;  and  whatever  the  con- 
ditions, the  full  day'§  journey  mu«t  be  made.  Early  in 
the  season  and  late  in  the  teaion— before  and  after  all 
other  travel— the  mail  must  move.  It  is  all  very  line 
and  efficient  and  bureaucratically  inexorable— but  it  is 
very  hard  on  the  dogs,  and  on  the  drivers  too,  and  there 
is  no  commensurate  gain  to  any  one.  In  the  summer  the 
contractor  sends  them  off  to  a  fish  camp  where  they 
remain  until  he  requires  them  again. 

But  even  the  dog  owner  who  is  most  considerate  of 
his  animals  finds  himself  embarrassed  by  them  in  summer. 
To  keep  six  or  seven  big  dogs  round  a  house  all  the  summer 
is  a  nuisance;  they  must  be  chained  or  they  will  fight 
and  maim  one  another;  and  however  much  a  man  may 
love  his  dogs,  if  he  has  spent  the  winter  in  their  com- 
pany he  is  glad  to  be  rid  of  them  awhile.  "  Absence  makes 
the  heart  grow  fonder"  of  dogs  whose  chief  recreation 
is  howling.  Moreover,  dogs  are  a  great  expense,  and 
the  only  cheap  way  of  feeding  them  in  the  summer  is 
with  the  refuse  of  the  fresh  fish  as  they  are  caught  for 
drying,  and  this  can  only  be  done  at  a  fish  camp.  So 
the  private  owner  of  a  dog  team,  also,  is  very  likely  to 
board  them  out  for  the  summer,  however  reluctantly. 

The  native  fishing  camps  are  picturesque  and  not 
infrequent  sights  along  the  river.  Virtually  the  whole 
Indian  population  scatters  out  at  this  occupation  so 
soon  as  the  salmon  begin  to  run  early  in  July,  to  the 
great  benefit  of  the  general  health.  Individuals,  ap- 
parently in  the  last  stages  of  consumption,  pick  up  won- 


P 


FISHING  METHODS  ,,3 

derfully  in  the  freih  air  and  iunshine  of  camp  life,  and 
children  seem  to  get  the  greater  part  of  their  year's 
growth  in  the  two  or  three  months  of  the  fishing  season; 
the  native  dogs  become  fat  and  better  favoured,  and 
the  staple  food  for  man  and  beast  is  put  up  in  quantities 
sufficient  for  the  winter.  Occasionally  an  Indian  in  a 
birch-bark  canoe  may  be  seen  in  midstream,  fishing  in 
the  old  way.  scooping  up  with  a  dip-net  the  salmon  who 
betrays  his  presence  beneath  by  a  ripple  on  the  surface, 
but  the  fish-wheel  has  almost  entirely  superseded  the 
more  primitive  method. 

The  fish-wheel  on  the  Yukon  dates  back  no  farther 
than  the  last  twelve  years  and  came  as  an  incident  of 
the  stampede  to  Fairbanks.  The  waters  of  the  upper 
Yukon  are  too  clear  for  the  employment  of  this  device; 
the  fish  can  see,  and  avoid,  the  netted  arms  that  dip 
into  the  stream,  but  in  the  middle  Yukon,  and  particularly 
the  Tanana,  are  very  dirty  streams,  in  which  fish-wheels 
do  well.  So  soon  as  the  settlement  at  Fairbanks  created 
a  large  demand  for  dried  fish,  wheels  were  set  out  in  the 
Tanana,  and  the  Indians,  beginning  to  copy  the  im- 
provement when  they  realised  its  advantages,  have 
adopted  it  almost  everywhere  it  will  serve.  The  tribu- 
taries that  are  not  fed  by  glaciers,  and  are  therefore 
clear,  however,  will  not  yield  their  fish  to  the  wheels 
and  in  their  waters  the  old  methods  persist. 

Nine  or  ten  miles  below  Beaver  a  swift  side  channel 
that  takes  off  from  the  main  stream  to  the  right,  re- 
turns to  it  again  about  five  miles  below  at  such  an  angle 
of  re-entrance  as  to  create  a  whirlpool,  which  at  certain 


''    I'll 


li'i 


114 


AN  ALASKAN  TRAGEDY 


n 


stages  of  water  is  quite  violent  in  its  action.  Since  this 
"WTiirlpool  Slough"  is  practicable  for  small  craft,  and 
saves  a  considerable  distance,  rowboats  often  blunder 
into  the  whirlpool  at  its  mouth,  tc  the  dismay,  and  even 
the  actual  peril,  of  their  occupants,  and  the  entrance 
to  the  slough  would  be  marked  with  a  danger-signal 
were  any  attempt  made  by  the  government  to  facilitate 
and  safeguard  the  navigation  of  this  great  river. 

A  couple  of  miles  or  so  below  the  wliirlpool  we  come 
to  "Victor's  Place,"  as  it  is  still  called,  although  Victor 
died  some  years  ago.  Since  the  story  of  his  death  is 
not  without  interest,  and  it  has  never  been  put  into 
print,  and  garbled  versions  are  about,  it  may  be  worth 
while  telling  it  here,  though  it  is  a  winter  story. 

In  January,  191 3,  while  travelling  down  the  Yukon 
with  a  dog  team,  and  lying  over  Sunday  at  Beaver, 
word  was  brought  there  by  a  neighbour  that  he  had 
found  Victor  dead  in  his  bed.  Every  one  who  knew 
Victor  knew  that  he  had  heart-disease,  so  while  the  news 
was  a  shock  it  was  not  a  great  surprise.  Procuring  some 
planks  for  a  coffin  and  putting  them  on  the  sled,  we  went 
down  the  next  morning.  We  found  the  body  as  the 
neighbour  had  found  it,  lying  frozen  on  the  bunk,  with 
every  appearance  that  death  had  come  in  sleep. 

The  weather  was  intensely  cold;  it  was  50°  below 
zero  all  that  week,  and  at  such  temperature  when  the 
fire  goes  out  in  a  cabin  it  does  not  take  long  to  freeze 
everything  freezable.  While  the  neighbour  who  brought 
the  news  was  busy  making  the  coffin,  and  my  half-breed 
attendant  started  to  dig  the  grave  by  building  a  huge 


VICISSITUDES  OF  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC        115 

fire  over  the  selected  spot  (only  so  may  we  go  down 
through  the  flint-like  frozen  earth),  I  prepared  the  body 
for  burial,  examining  it  carefully  to  be  sure  that  death 
was  due  to  natural  causes. 

While  thus  engaged,  there  came  an  old  Indian  and 
told  my  boy  a  story  of  an  assault  upon  Victor  by  an  In- 
dian named  "Beaver  Creek  William,"  and  I  set  his  name 
down  here  for  reasons  that  will  appear.  That  night  I 
took  the  old  Indian's  narrative  at  the  mouth  of  my  half- 
breed  interpreter.  It  set  forth  that  nine  or  ten  days 
before  Victor's  death,  this  Beaver  Creek  William,  having 
exhausted  a  supply  of  whisky  at  Stephen's  Village 
brought  up  from  a  r-stilent  liquor  shop  at  Rampart, 
had  come  hither,  two  long  days'  journey,  and  had  de- 
manded whisky  from  Victor,  and  upon  being  refused  had 
knocked  Victor  down  and  dragged  him  about  the  floor. 

Now  three  or  four  years  before  I  had  found  it  my 
unpleasant  duty  to  prosecute  Victor  for  selling  liquor 
to  Indians,  and  though  he  was  acquitted,  as  is  usually 
the  case,  yet  I  knew  and,  I  think  I  may  say,  every  one 
concerned  in  the  case  knew,  that  the  man  was  guilty. 
It  put  Victor  to  some  expense  and  trouble,  which  is 
about  all  the  good  these  prosecutions  do,  commonly, 
but  they  are  not  to  be  condemned  on  that  score,  since 
expense  and  trouble  are  in  the  nature  of  punishment, 
and  it  is  sometimes  possible  to  stop  offences  by  ac- 
quittals as  well  as  by  convictions.  At  any  rate,  Victor 
took  warning,  and  I  do  not  think  he  had  been  guilty 
of  the  offence  since,  and  as  he  knew  that  there  was  noth- 
ing personal  in  my  action  against  him,  amicable  relation- 


I     |.; 


'i 


ii6 


A  SAD  ENDING 


f  I; 


ship  had  long  since  been  restored.  But  it  gave  colour 
to  the  account  of  the  old  Indian,  and  was  not  incon- 
sistent with  what  I  knew  of  the  sinister  character  of 
Beaver  Creek  William. 

When  I  had  carefully  written  out  the  old  Indian's 
account  of  what  he  had  seen,  had  read  it  over  to  him 
through  the  interpreter  and  had  sworn  him  to  it,  the 
body  was  again  carefully  examined  from  head  to  foot 
in  the  presence  of  my  companions,  but  no  marks  of  vio- 
lence were  found  upon  it  at  all,  save  a  slight  abrasion 
of  one  elbow  such  as  might  have  been  made  by  striking 
it  accidentally  against  a  tree  or  a  door-post.  I  drew  up 
another  affidavit  to  that  effect  and  swore  them  to  it. 

By  our  Indian's  account,  the  assault  had  taken  place 
nine  or  ten  days  before  the  death;  it  must  have  been 
slight  since  it  left  no  marks;  Victor  had  been  going 
about,  cooking  and  attending  to  his  household  affairs 
until  the  day  before  his  death;  it  was  known  that  he 
had  heart-disease.  Now  it  was  in  my  mind  that  William 
should  be  punished,  but  we  all  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  assault  could  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
death,  and  that  common  assault  and  not  murder  was 
all  he  could  be  charged  with. 

The  funeral,  in  the  twilight  of  the  shortest  day  of 
the  year,  at  a  temperature  of  80°  or  more  below  the 
freezing-point,  in  the  dead  stillness  that  always  ac- 
companies the  "strong  cold,"  was  one  amongst  many 
such  that  I  shall  never  forget.  Putting  my  vestments 
on  over  my  heavy  apparel  I  said  the  burial  office, 
and  hastened  back  to  the  warmth  of  the  cabin;  while 


li 


LEGAL  COMPLICATIONS  117 

the  others  quickly  filled  in  the  grave  they  had  so  labor- 
iously dug,  and  set  up  a  headboard  I  had  inscribed. 

Before  we  left  the  place  I  gathered  up  all  money 
and  valuables  and  papers  I  could  find  and  carried  them 
down  five  days'  journey  to  the  United  States  com- 
missioner at  Rampart,  in  the  same  weather  all  the  way; 
and  when  I  had  taken  a  receipt  from  him  for  the  money 
and  valuables,  /  swore  out  a  warrant  against  Willic-n, 
charging  him  with  assault,  and  turned  over  to  the  com- 
missioner the  depositions  I  had  drawn  up. 

Then  I  resumed  my  journey  far  afield,  and  it  was  not 
until  next  June  that  I  heard  the  sequel.  Beaver  Creek 
William  was  arrested  and  taken  to  Rampart.  There  he 
secured  by  some  means  the  services  of  a  lawyer  of  sorts, 
who  persuaded  the  commissioner  that  by  statute  no 
man  could  be  tried  for  assault  unless  he  were  confronted 
in  court  \,ith  the  person  assaulted;  and  the  case  was 
dismissed.  The  commissioner  was  an  old  retired  physician, 
a  good  man  and  a  just,  but  knowing  nothing  whatever 
about  law;  and  the  case  is  a  commentary  on  the  whole 
system  of  the  Alaskan  unpaid  magistracy  that  must 
live  upon  fees  even  though  the  fees  be  insufficient  for  a 
living,  so  that  capable  men  cannot  be  found  to  take  the 
office. 

But  this  was  not  the  end  of  the  affair.  Certain  resi- 
dents in  the  Yukon  Flats,  hearing  wild  rumours  that 
Victor  had  been  murdered,  addressed  the  district  at- 
torney with  a  demand  for  an  inquest,  and  charged  me 
with  shielding  the  Indian  murderer.  At  the  opening 
of  navigation,  therefore,  the  district  attorney  sent  the 


4|% 
1 


t 


I  < 


i  1 


r*  I  \ 


118  INDIAN  CHARACTERISTICS 

army  surgeon  from  Fort  Gibbon  to  exhume  the  body 
and  perform  an  autopsy.  The  steamboat  that  took 
him  stopped  at  Rampart  and  picked  up  a  coroner's 
jury,  and  the  company  proceeded  to  Victor's  place. 
When  the  autopsy  was  performed  and  all  the  evidence 
was  presented,  the  surgeon  told  the  jury  that  Victor 
had  succumbed  to  an  organic  disease  of  the  heart,  and 
that  the  assault,  a  week  or  more  before,  could  have  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  death;  the  jury  returned  a 
verdict  of  "Death  from  natural  causes,"  the  body  was 
reinterred  and  the  company  departed.  And  yet  the 
story  is  on  the  river  to  this  day,  with  most  circumstan- 
tial details,  that  Victor  was  murdered  and  the  murderer 
shielded  by  the  missionary. 

Since  Beaver  Creek  William  was  never  punished,  I 
hnve  set  his  name  down  in  the  unenviable  notoriety  of 
being  the  only  Indian  I  have  ever  myself  known  to  be 
guilty  of  an  assault  upon  a  white  man.  They  are  a 
gentle  and  even  timid  people,  not  given  to  brawling 
among  themselves  nor  to  acts  of  violence  of  any  kind; 
but  there  are  occasional  morose,  churlish  individuals 
amongst  them,  who,  under  the  influence  of  liquor  or  the 
craving  appetite  for  the  same— and  under  that  influence 
alone,  so  far  as  my  observation  goes— may  be  capable  of 
ruffianly  conduct.  And  I  take  credit  that  I  did  unhesi- 
tatingly set  the  law  in  motion  against  the  only  one  I  have 
mys  ^If  known  to  be  thus  guilty. 

There  are  circumstances  of  mysterious  interest  in 
Victor's  story  that  do  not  enter  into  the  account  of  his 
death.    A  year  or  so  before,  a  steamboat  had  been  robbed 


ELEMENTS  OF  A  ROMANCE 


119 


of  a  large  shipment  of  gold-dust  in  this  immediate  vicin- 
ity; the  night-watchman  had  dropped  overboard  and 
swum  ashore  after  (as  it  was  conjectured)  sinking  the 
boxes  of  gold  with  a  float  attached.  He  was  captured 
at  Victor's  place  and  tried  at  Fairbanks  and  convicted, 
but  obstinately  held  his  tongue,  nor  could  be  induced 
by  any  offers  of  leniency  to  disclose  what  had  been  done 
with  the  gold.  Did  Victor  know  anything  about  it  ? 
Some  have  held  that  the  prospecting  he  was  carrying 
on  by  proxy  back  on  the  Hodzana  was  intended  to  furnish 
a  pretext  for  the  production  of  the  gold-dust  by  and  by. 
Many  people  believe  that  it  is  buried  somewhere  near 
his  cabin,  and  now  and  again  surreptitious  digging  takes 
place.  So  here  are  the  elements  of  a  romance  of  the  far 
north,  presented,  with  my  compliments,  to  the  writers 
for  the  ten-cent  magazines,  whose  sensational  Alaskan 
stories,  of  late,  show  signs  of  languishing  imagination 
without  any  signs  of  increasing  knowledge.  In  the  last 
one  I  read,  a  man  travelled  fifty  miles  in  a  day  on  snow- 
shoes,  with  twenty  thousand  dollars  in  gold-dust  belted 
around  him,  which  would  weigh  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  an  hundred  pounds. 

Let  us  drop  down  the  river  twelve  or  fifteen  miles 
more,  in  the  course  of  which  the  Yukon  receives  the 
Hodzana  from  the  north  and  Beaver  Creek  from  the 
south.  But  the  Flats  are  so  devoid  of  natural  interest 
to  the  cursory  eye  of  the  traveller  that  its  place  must 
be  supplied  with  human  interest  when  possible.  And 
certainly,  here  at  "Purgatory,"  as  he  calls  it,  is  a  most 
interesting  personality. 


i;.  1 


120 


GLENN'S  EXPEDITION 


When  Captain  (now  Colonel)  E.  F.  Glenn  conducted 
an  expedition  in  1898  that  sought  to  penetrate  from  the 
coast  through  the  Alaslca  Range  to  the  waters  of  the 
interior,  he  had  with  him  Sergeant  William  Yanert,  of 
the  8th  Cavalry.  This  man  was  sent  out  on  a  detached 
party  and  reached  a  tributary  of  the  Nenana  River  that 
interlocks  with  tributaries  of  the  Sushitna  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Broad  Pass,  which  tributary  was  named 
the  Yanert  Fork  by  Alfred  Brooks,  head  of  the  Alaskan 
Geological  Survey.  He  also  mapped  the  Sushitna  River, 
and  was  evidently,  from  the  terms  in  which  he  is  men- 
tioned in  Captain  Glenn's  report,  a  most  valuable  mem- 
ber of  the  party.  There  is  a  lake  on  the  right  bank  of 
Birch  Creek  named  Yanert  Lake  by  Lieutenant  Erick- 
son,  U.  S.  A.,  in  honour  of  explorations  by  the  same 
man,  and  again  a  mountain  not  far  from  Fort  Hamlin, 
named  Yanert  Hole  (because  it  probably  has  a  crater 
on  top),  named  after  the  same  man  by  the  same  man.* 

So  here  is  one  of  the  few  men  living  with  a  river,  a 
lake,  and  a  mountain  in  Alaska  named  after  him;  whom 
the  military  and  the  scientific  authorities  have  alike 
been  pleased  to  honour.  And  it  were  well  if  all  the  long 
list  of  personal  names  given  to  places  in  Alaska  had 
been  as  appropriately  bestowed. t 

When  his  soldiering  was  done  William  Yanert  built 

*  "Geographic  Dictionary  of  Alaika"  (Waihington,  1906). 

1 1  know  of  only  one  man  who  excels  William  Yanert  in  the  number  of 
different  natural  Alaskan  features  named  in  his  honour,  and  that  one  is  the 
late  John  Henry  Turner  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey;  who  has  a  river 
on  the  arctic  coast,  a  glacier  near  Mt.  St.  Elias,  a  lake  that  falls  into  the 
Taku  Inlet,  a  mountain  near  the  Stikine  River,  and  an  island  of  the  Shuma- 
gin  group,  all  named  for  him. 


SKILLED  CARTOGRAPHY  121 

himself  a  cabin  in  the  Yukon  Flats  and  called  the  place 
"Purgatory,"  and  here  he  has  resided  with  his  brother 
Herman  for  the  past  fourteen  or  fifteen  years.  What 
particular  expiation  he  is  working  out  I  know  not,  but 
if  he  be  in  torment  it  is  not  noticeable  to  the  outward 
eye.  Few  men  more  content  with  their  lot  it  has  been 
my  fortune  to  meet.  He  catches  enough  fur  every  winter 
to  suffice  for  the  supply  of  his  simple  wanrs  outside  of 
the  game  that  falls  to  his  rifle,  and  has  ample  time  left 
to  gratify  his  deep  interest  in  the  topography  of  the 
country  and  its  animal  life.  His  cartographical  abilities 
have  not  been  idle;  for  his  own  pleasure  he  has  made 
a  careful  map  of  about  ten  miles  square  of  the  Yukon 
Flats,  the  only  map  of  any  part  of  the  Flats,  so  far  as  I 
know,  that  has  ever  been  made;  and  he  has  been  kind 
enough  to  permit  me  to  use  it  as  an  illustration  for  this 
volume.  His  ingenuity  and  manual  dexterity  are  con- 
stantly exercised  in  the  production  of  quaint  and  gro- 
tesque carvings.  The  exterior  of  his  cabin  is  adorned 
with  admirable  reduced  imitations  of  the  totem-poles 
of  the  coast  Indians.  Having  no  master  but  his  own 
purposes,  he  leads  as  free  and  independent  a  life  as  any 
man  I  know.  His  station  is  either  above  or  beneath 
envy — as  you  please;  he  is  not  touched  by  cupidity  or 
ambition,  and  the  rage  and  the  rascality  of  the  world 
of  men  pass  him  altogether  by. 

The  grim  humour  of  the  man  was  displayed  a  few 
years  ago  in  a  way  that  shocked  the  passengers  on  steam- 
boats tying  up  at  his  place  for  wood;  for  that  was  before 
the  ordinary  boats  burned  oil,  and  Yanert  had  a  wood- 


I 


I 


r 

i 

m . 


122  A  GRIM  HUMOURIST 

yard.  The  Northwest  Mounted  Police  had  been  ex- 
pelling undesirable  characters  from  Dawson,  and  many 
a  man  drifted  down  the  river  in  a  small  boat,  preying 
upon  the  "camps"  he  passed,  if  he  found  the  owners 
absent.  Yanert's  place  had  been  robbed  of  grub  in  this 
manner.  It  is  u  most  exasperating  thing  for  a  lonely 
dweller  on  the  Yukon  to  come  back  from  some  brief 
journey  and  find  his  cache  broken  into  and  the  supply 
laid  up  for  the  winter  invaded,  perhaps  late  in  the  season, 
when  it  is  difficult  to  procure  more,  even  if  the  where- 
withal were  at  hand;  perhaps  to  find  rifle  or  shotgun 
gone,  or  even  the  stove  looted  bodily  out  of  the  cabin, 
as  I  have  known,  and  the  blankets  gone  from  the  bed. 
It  is  hard  to  think  of  more  cowardly  and  contemptible 
stealing.  So  Yanert  designed  a  warning  against  any 
who  should  visit  his  place  again  with  such  intent.  He 
shot  a  whisky-jack  (Canada  jay  is  its  right  name,  I 
think,  though  it  is  generally  known  in  Alaska  as  "camp- 
robber"),  that  had  been  pecking  at  some  bacon,  and 
buried  the  bird  in  a  full-sized  man's  grave,  rounded  into 
the  usual  shape,  and  set  up  this  legend  conspicuously  on 
the  headboard:  "He  Robbed  my  Camp  and  I  Shot 
Him."  I  know  not  into  what  lurid  stories  of  lawlessness 
in  the  far  north  this  incident  has  been  woven. 

It  is  good  to  think  of  a  lonely  dwelling  on  the  bank 
of  the  Yukon  which  is  more  than  the  abode  of  hard 
labour  and  mere  animal  (existence;  which,  on  the  con- 
trary, harbours  intelligent  thought  and  even  zealous, 
disinterested  enterprise.  With  rugged  health  and  a 
readily  procured,  though  modest,  subsistence,  with  leisure 


i!       « 


., 


-^^sS'sc/'.oji^q^^/i, 


MlCiOCOPV   RESOLUTION  TiST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0    ^^  Ki 

^=      ..^     12.2 


I.I 


:  ^    iss 


^  /APPLIED  irVMGE     Inc 

S^^-  >6S3   Eail   Main   ;ir#et 

S'.a  Rocn«l»r,   Nao   'orfc        U609       uS* 

■■^  (716)  482  -  0300  -  PKone 

=a  (716)  288  -  5989  -  Fa. 


M  y 


i;e. 


Ill 


■I    < 


TYPICAL  YUKON  TOPOGRAPHY  123 

to  follow  congenial  pursuits,  with  peace  and  quietness, 
there  are  less  desirable,  if  more  comfortable,  lots  than 
that  which  William  Yanert  has  chosen. 

The  map  which  is  here  presented,  on  a  sufficiently 
large  scale  to  show  plainly  every  minute  feature,  will 
repay  more  than  a  glance.    Just  as  the  particular  study 
of  a  certain  period  of  history  throws  bright  light  upon 
history  as  a  whole,  and  frequently  explains  what  had 
before  been  persistently  obscure,  so  is  topography  es- 
sential to  geography;  and  this  area  of  about  one  hundred 
square   miles,    displayed   with    almost   domestic   detail, 
will  convey  more  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the 
whole  country  than  a  comprehensive  presentation  of  it 
could  possibly  convey.     It  covers  an  interesting  section. 
The  Flats  draw  in,  the  foothills  are  now  not  many  miles 
distant  from  the  river;    on  the  right  bank,  and  again 
nearly  opposite  on  the  left  bank,  a  tributary  of  some 
importance  is  received,  and  just  as  these  streams  meander 
with  an  elaborate  tortuousness  towards  their  discharge, 
and  fall,  not  into  the  main  channel  but  into  some  con- 
necting slough,  so  do  all  the  tributaries  in  this  region 
approach  their  confluence  with  the  Yukon.    The  broad, 
sweeping  sinuosity  of  the  great   river   itself  is   shown 
even  more  strikingly  by  the  broken  connections  to  the 
east  of  the  map,  than  by  ife  continuous  course  laid 
down  in  the  greater  part.     P..,t  what  a  maze  of  lakes 
and  swamps  and  watercourses  the  whole  valley  presents ! 
And  the  area  delineated  is  broadly  typical  of  the 
whole  region  we  have  lately  been  voyaging  through. 
The  little  lakes  and  creeks  so  carefully  bounded  and 


Dl 


If 


>Y 


f' 


iff' '  I 


124         A  LAND  OF  LAKES  AND  SWAMPS 

named,  must  stand  for  thousands  and  thousands  of  un- 
named ones  all  over  this  wide  basin.    Leave  the  steam- 
boat anywhere  and  force  your  way  through  the  scrub 
forest  and  the  dense  underbrush,  and  ere  long  you  will 
reach  the  bank  of  another  channel  or  slough.    Cross  it 
and  you  will  come  to  yet  another,  or  you  will  find  your- 
self on  the  shore  of  a  shallow  lake.    Skirt  the  lake  and 
you  will  reach  an  impassable  swamp.     Indeed,  the  gen- 
eral characteristic  of  the  whole  region  is  wetness;  nine- 
tenths  of  all  interior  Alaska  that  is  not  mountain  is  lake 
and  stream  and  niggerhead  swamp,  thickly  interspersed 
with  dense  scrub  forest  and  "jungle,"  as  Yanert  calls 
it.    Travel  across  it  in  the  summer  is  impossible,  save 
along  ridges  of  high  ground.     Even  in  the  mountains 
the  whole  earth  reeks  with  moisture;  almost  every  level 
spot  is  a  bog  or  a  lake,  and  the  valleys  are  always  nigger- 
head swamps.    But  in  the  winter,  when  the  cold  solid- 
ifies the  wetness  and  the  snow  smooths  out  the  inequali- 
ties, one  may  go  where  one  pleases  in  the  open,  and 
lakes  and  swamps  are  an  aid  instead  of  a  hindrance  to 

travel. 

The  permanently  frozen  soil  which  the  water  can- 
not penetrate  is  doubtless  the  reason  for  this  saturation 
of  surface.  The  snow  which  melts  in  the  spring,  the 
rain  which  falls  in  the  summer,  soak  into  the  spongy 
moss  until  it  has  all  it  can  hold,  and  then  form  pools  in 
all  the  little  hollows  between  the  clumps  of  moss— and 
there  is  a  swamp.  One  need  go  no  farther  to  understand 
the  terrible  plague  of  mosquitoes  which  afflicts  the  coun- 
try.   Given  this  universal  wetness  of  surface  and  a  sun 


THE  MOSQUITO  PLAGUE  125 

that  is  in  the  sky  nearly  all  the  time,  and  conditions 
are  ideal  for  their  multitudinous  breeding. 

It  is  odd  that  so  many  people  should  still  discover 
surprise  at  the  presence  of  mosquitoes  in  the  arctic  re- 
gions. Wherever  there  is  land  that  retains  moisture  and 
receives  warmth,  mosquitoes,  may  be  found.  They  have 
no  altitude  limit  as  such.  I  have  myself  been  troubled 
with  them  in  the  Colorado  Rockies  at  thirteen  thousand 
feet,  and  Doctor  Workman  found  them  at  fifteen  thou- 
sand feet  in  the  Himalayas.  They  have  no  latitude  limit; 
Greely,  for  instance,  found  them  at  Fort  Conger,  in 
Grinnell  Land,  well  above  the  80th  parallel.  Wherever 
flowers  and  grass  will  grow,  mosqiutoes  will  breed,  and 
flowers  and  grass  grow  wherever  there  is  land  near  the 
sea-level  not  under  permanent  glacial  ice,  up  to  the  ex- 
treme limit  of  the  northern  hemisphere. 

Ten  miles  or  so  before  leaving  the  t.ats  a  native 
settlement  is  passed  on  the  right  bank,  but  off  the  steam- 
boat channel.  Unless  the  boat  have  freight  for  the  place 
it  does  not  usually  put  in,  and  the  mail  for  the  two  white 
traders  who  divide  its  petty  commerce,  and  for  the  mis- 
sionary teacher,  the  only  white  woman  for  nearly  a 
hundred  miles  in  every  direction,  is  delivered  into  the 
skiff  or  launch  that  puts  out  when  the  boat  is  sighted 
or  the  whistle  heard. 

The  p'  appears  on  most  recent  maps  as  "Steven's 
Village,"  .  since  it  is  the  village  of  the  Indian  patriarch 
Stephen,  the  corrupted  name  can  only  be  attributed  to 
that  perverse  desire  to  make  one  letter  grow  where  two 
grew  before  which  afflicts  modern  philologists  and  map- 


!  ?  fl 


Ul 


.;  (1 


'!l  t' 


m.' 


■'  i' 


126  POST-OFFICE  ILLITERACY 

makers,  and  seems  to  have  taken  the  place  in  their  minds 
of  the  famous  horticultural  ideal  presen.ed  for  the  con- 
sideration of  Captain  Lemuel  Gulliver  by  the  King  of 
Brobdingnag.  It  is  usually  the  Post-Office  Department, 
oddly  enough  the  most  illiterate  department  of  our 
government,  which  is  responsible  for  these  corrupt  cur- 
tailments, but  since  there  is  no  post-office  at  Stephen's 
Village,  the  blame  lies  elsewhere  this  time.  It  is  my 
observation  that  spelling  reformers  are  the  most  prolix 
and  verbose  of  writers;  economists  of  letters,  they  arc 
the  prodigals  of  words;  a  saving  at  the  spigbt  and  wast- 
ing at  the  bung-hole  characteristic  of  the  passion  for 
contraction  and  elision.  So  these  map-makers  who  save 
a  letter  here  and  a  prefix  there,  who  lop  off  all  posses- 
sive forms  and  write  "Cook  Inlet"  for  "Cook's  Inlet," 
will  cover  the  Koyukuk  River  with  places  such  as  Berg- 
man and  Arctic  City  and  Peavey  and  Jinitov  n  and  Union 
City  and  Seaforth  which  have  no  existence. 

The  last  settlement  of  natives  was  at  Fort  Yukon: 
the  intervening  stretch  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  miles  or  so  separates  one  language  from  another. 
Here  at  Stephen's  Village  the  natives  speak  the  language 
of  Tanana  and  the  Middle  River;  the  tongue  of  Fort 
Yukon  is  the  tongue  of  the  Upper  River.  While  of  the 
same  root,  the  two  tongues  differ  perhaps  as  widely  as 
Spanish  and  Portuguese,  and  this  difference  seems  to 
speak  of  a  long  period  without  intercourse,  in  which 
the  d-  ergence  arose.  Beyond  the  certainty  that  the 
natives  of  the  interior  of  ALiska  are  all  of  one  common 
stock,  there  is  little  that  is  known,  or  ever  can  be  known, 


DALL   RIVER  ,^7 

of  their  history  prior  to  the  coming  of  the  white  man. 
Their  language  was  not  written  until  the  early  mis- 
sionaries extracted  its  grammar  and  reduced  it  to  writing 
and  there  are  no  traditions  worthy  the  name  historical 
amongst  them. 

On  the  very  edge  of  the  Flats  the  Yukon  receives 
the  Dall  River  on  its  right  bank,  and  Stephen's  Village 
used  to  be  situated  just  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dall,  on  the 
slough  into  which  it  discharges,  but  an  inundation  some 
ten  years  ago  destroyed  the  village  and  induced  the  In- 
dians to  change  its  site. 

This  river  is  named  for  Mr.  William  Healy  Dall, 
the  distinguished  naturalist  of  the  National  Museum' 
at  Washmgton,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  explorers  of 
the  interior  of  Alaska,  and  whose  book  "Alaska  and  Its 
Resources,"  published  in  1870,  and  long  since  out  of 
pnnt,  IS  the  most  valuable  book  ever  written  about  the 
country.  When  Dall  records  and  discusses  his  own  ob- 
servations he  is  a  safe  guide;  when  he  falls  into  error 
>t  will  be  found  that  he  is  recording  what  has  been  told 
him  by  others.  Dall's  book  left  Alaska  known  to  the 
extent  that  his  eye  had  seen  it;  even  his  speculations 
on  what  he  had  himself  seen  are  almost  always  judicious 
and  frequently  illuminating.  He  belongs  in  the  first 
rank  of  explorers,  and  his  work  will  be  frequently  re- 
ferred to  henceforth. 

Most  people  are  quite  unaware  that  shortly  after 
the  Civil  War  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company 
entertained  the  ambitious  project  of  connecting  Eu- 
rope and  America  by  telegraph,  via  Alaska,  Bering  Sea, 


Ml 


,28  THE  WESTERN  UNION  SURVEY 

and  Siberia,  and  sent  out  well-equipped  survey-parties 
into  the  field  on  both  the  Asiatic  and  Amencan  sides, 
and  maintained  them  for  several  years,  spendmg  upwards 
of  three  million  dollars  in  such  preparatory  work.    The 
cheme  was  dropped  when  the  Atlantic  cable  provd 
successful,  and  all  that  was  gained  was  what  Dall  and 
hlcomplnions  brought  back  from  Alaska  and  Kennan 
from  Siberia  in  the  way  of  increased  knowledge  of  the 
regions  they  had  traversed.    Both  these  septuagenarians 
are  still  in  harness,  full  of  honours  and  fame. 


I    I 


i^ 


,1' 


d 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  LOWER  RAMPARTS  AND  XANANA 

n.nJ"!/"'^""  ^■"'"  '"^"  '^'  ^'^'''  «^«"  «ore  ab- 
mptly  than  .t  entered  them.  There  is  no  gradual  rising 
of  the  ground  or  preparatory  reassembling  of  the  waters 
To  nght  and  to  left  the  levels  stretch  away  unchanged, 
but  immediately  in  front  is  a  mountain  barrier  with  a 
narrow  gap  or  notch  in  the  midst  of  it.  Straight  for 
that  gap  the  r.ver  drives,  gathering  its  various  channels 
iTk  V  ''"T"^''"'^  beforehand,  and  at  a  plunge  has 
eft  behmd  the  great  basin  with  its  wide-spread  channels, 
and  flows  ,n  a  narrow  bed  between  the  lofty  barriers  of 
the  Lower  Ramparts. 

One  is  impressed  with  the  thought  of  the  depth  to 
wh.ch  that  narrow  bed  must  descend  in  order  to  carry 
the  great  volume  of  water  that  has  hitherto  been  spread 
out  m  mdes  of  width.    Since  entering  the  Flats  one  first- 
ckss  tributary  has  been  received  and  a  number  of  lesser, 
though  st,ll  important  ones.    Not  only  the  drainage  of 
the  Flats  themselves,  of  about  thirty  thousand  square 
miles,  but  the  discharge  from  the  much  larger  drainage- 
basm  of  these  tributaries  has  been  added  to  the  wafer 
o   the  river,  now  all  carried  in  a  channel  a  few  hundred 
yards  wide      Farther  along  it  will  contract  still  more 
^o  far  as  the  writer  knows,  no  serious  attempt  has  ever 
been  made  to  determine  the  depth  of  the  Yukon  within 
the  Ramparts,  but  it  must  certainly  be  very  great. 

"9 


'I 


iTf 


I'l    fi'    • 


1 


,30  THE  RAMPARTS  SECTION 

The  change  of  scenery  i»  as  agreeable  as  it  is  abrupt. 
The  eye  has  grown  tired  of  the  interminable  expanse  of 
water  and  low-lying  land,  of  dense  scrub  spruce  and 
willow,  almost  as  thick  and  serried  as  the  pile  of  a  plush 
carpet,  of  desolate  sand-bars  and  ragged,  crumbling  mud- 
banks,  of  piostrate  trees  in  full  foliage  helplessly  sway- 
ing in  the  turbid  water.    It  is  a  pleasant  relief  to  look 
upon  bold  high  ground  again,  upon  varicoloured  rocks, 
upon  a  sky-line  broken  by  aspiring  curves,  upon  a  prospect 
mysterioui'y  bounded   and  an  exit   apparently  denied 
every  time  a  bend  is  turned,  by  distant,  overlappmg 
mountains.     Even  the   most   accustomed   traveller  on 
the  river  anticipates  the  change  with  pleasure;   to  the 
new  visitor  it  comes  with  delight. 

Immediately  the  Ramparts  are  entered,  the  deserted 
buildings  of  the  old  trading-post  known  as  Fort  Hamlin 
are  seen  on  a  bench  of  the  left  bank.  The  place  served 
as  a  warehouse  in  the  days  of  the  great  Klondike  ac- 
tivities, and  for  a  while  there  was  some  mining,  or  at 
least  prospecting,  on  the  Dall  River,  which  drew  sup- 
plies hence,  but  for  ten  years  past  it  has  been  altogether 
abandoned  and  deserted. 

For  the  most  part  in  one  compact  body— although 
here  and  there  a  small  island  may  divide  its  stream-the 
river  winds  between  steep  and  rugged  mountain  ridges 
that  maintain  a  general  level  until  the  Ray  River  is 
received  from  the  north.  Here  they  open  out  and  break 
into  more  rounded,  detached  masses,  but  again  close  m 
to  a  general  ridge-like  character  after  the  confluence. 
As  some  of  the  sharp  bends  foreshorten  the  confining 


FOREST-FIRES  ,3, 

wall,  they  take  to  themselves  an  almost  canon-like  ap- 
pearance and  often  seem  to  Slock  all  possible  passa.; 
There  is,  however,  no  true  ,   fion  of  the  Yukon.    The 
Ramparts  cons.st  of  a  series  of  rocky  gorges,  in  places  of 
a  picturesque  ruggedness  and  gloom,  with  the  usual  small 
spruce  fmber  clothing  the  slopes  save  where  the  no 
mfrequent    forest-fires    have    denuded    them.     In   such 
burned  places  a  covering  of  fireweed   springs  up.  and 
when  .t  .s  ,  bloom,  in  July,  patches  of  rich  magenta 
brighten  the  somewhat  scmbre  colouring  of  the  Ram- 
p3ris. 

Forest-fires  have  done  vast  destruction  throughout 
e  mtenor.     Dall  found  large  forest-fires  burning  i„ 

when  the  waste  has  not  continued.    S..„uld  the  season 
be  a  dry  one  the  traveller  is  almost  certain  to  encounter 
them  somewhere  along  the  course  of  the  Yukon,  and  at 
t.mes  the  journey  down  the  river  is  made  an  almost 
contmuous  evidence  of  their  activity,  near  or  remote. 
Sometimes  the  whole  river  reeks  with  smoke  from  White- 
horse  to  Anvik.    Immense  areas  have  been  burned  over: 
once  started,  the  fires  sweep  on  until  they  burn  them- 
selves out  or  some  opportune  rain-storm  extinguishes 
them.    There  is  no  attentat  at  fighting  them,  nor  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  country  would  an  atten^ot  be 
possib  e.    Yet  It  grieves  one  to  see  such  wastage  of  timber 
and  of  animal  hfe.     Birds,  in  particular,  are  none  too 
numerous  here,  winter  or  summer,  and  the  destruction 

LTr"'f      K   '"  "  '°"'^-'"  '"  ^''^  «»^'y  ^"""H"  » 
complete  for  the  area  involved. 


f) 


m< 


,1 
i  i 

in 

l! 


,j,  ABANDONED  COAL-MINE 

After  the  Ray  River,  named  for  Captain  Ray,  U. 
S  A    who  was  at  Fort  Yukon  in  1897-8.  the  river  turni 
on  itself  and  flows  east,  then  due  «)Uth  until  the  next 
important  tributary.  Mike  He..  Creek,  i.  received,  con- 
fluent on  the  left  bank,  named  for  an  old  prospector  oJ 
these  parts.    The  official  curtailer  of  name,  has  again 
been  at  work,  and  recent  map.  call  it  "He..  Creek, 
striking  out  the  picture.quenes.  of  the  name  and  mak- 
ing it  commonplace-but  what  i.  that  to  a  cartograph- 
ical economist  who  can  save  four  letters  thereby  ?    For- 
tunately, it  is  easier  10  change  a  name  on  the  map  than 
on  the  lips  of  the  people.    Vess  might  be  anybody,  but 
Mike  Hess  is  one  man.    Nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of 
Mike  Hess  is  an  abandoned  coal-mine,  another  ot  the 
many  along  the  Yukon.    The  coal  was  of  poor  quality 
and  the  vein  "pinched  out"  as  it  was  followed  up.  which 
is  the  story  of  them  all.    A  little  below  the  coal-mine 
the  river  takes  another  change  of  direction  and  for  a 
few  miles  flows  almost  north,  and  then  sweeps  around 
in  a  great  blunt  curve,  with  ever-increasing  heights  on 
t.     -ght  bank  and  lowlands  on  the  left,  for  Rampart 
City     This  blunt  curve  is  known  locally  as  "Point-no 
Point  "  for  ever  ahead  is  what  looks  like  a  promo;  toiy; 
until  'when  it  is  reached,  it  is  indistinguishable  from  the 
general   ^    eep  of  the  bank,   and   another  promontory 

looms  ahead. 

From  the  coal-mine  to  Rampart  is  about  twenty- 
five  miles  by  the  river;  a  cut-off  across  the  lowlands  of 
the  left  bank  halves  the  distance  on  the  wmter  trail. 
A  mile  above  Rampart  is  an  abandoned  Indian  vdlage 


RAMPART  CITY  ,33 

with  a  graveyard  high  up  on  the  bluflF.     Such  of  the 
native,  as  survive  have  moved  to  the  w    te  town;   the 
girls  have  married  white  men  and  the  youthful  part  of 
the  community  is  half-breed.    Is  this  to  be  the  fate  in 
general  of  the  Alaskan  native?    Perhaps  in  small  com- 
munities like  this,  it  is;    certainly  the  half-breeds  are 
much  in  evidence  and  seem  to  increase  everywhere;  but 
It  nriust  be  remembered  that  only  a  part  of  the  natives 
of  the  mterior  live  along  the  Yukon  River,  and  it  is  along 
that  stream  that  contact  with  the  white  man  has  been 
most  intimate.     There  are  as  yet  many   Indian   com- 
munities where  there  has  been  little  or  no  admixture 
of  blood.    It  is  not  safe  to  judge  all      terior  Alaska  by 
what  is  seen  along  the  Yukon. 

Rampart  City  is  pleasantly  situated  upon  a  bench  of 
the  left  bank,  with  lofty  mountains  behind  and        ng 
ground  leading  up  to  still  loftier  mountains  on  the  .    po- 
site  shore.    Its  long  rows  of  empty  cabins  and  aban- 
doned stores  give  a  rather  melancholy  aspect  to   -he 
town;  an  aspect  which  departed  prosperity  usually  takes. 
There  may  be  twenty-five  or  thirty  white  residents,  as 
against  a  thousand  in  the  heyday  of  its  mining  boom. 
The  visitor  who  walks  up  ana  down  its  deserted  streets 
now,  while  the  steamboat  discharges  a  little  freight  and 
the  purser  wends  his  way  to  the  post-office  with  the 
mails,  may  conjure  up  the  busy  scene  that  was  presented 
m  the  summer  of  1898,  when  many  a  boat-load  of  eager 
seekers  after  gold  thronged  these  narrow  sidewalks,  or 
started  out  through  the  mud  and  the  mosquitoes  with 
packs  on  their  backs,  for  the  creeks;  when  these  silent 


134    AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

liquor-shops,  with  doors  and  windows  boarded  up,  wait- 
ing for  a  resumption  of  business  that  will  never  come, 
were  alive  with  men  entering  and  leaving,  and  the  stores 
were  open  day  and  night  for  the  outfitting  of  prospectors. 
Rex  Beach,  whose  cabin  visitors  always  inquire  after, 
has  drawn  a  highly  coloured  picture  of  it  in  "The  Bar- 
rier," the  scene  of  which  lies  hereabout,  so  far  as  it  lies 
anyvhere. 

Across  the  river  is  a  totally  different  scene,  with 
totally  different  assot-ations.    Rampart  looks  backward 
to  the  spacious  times  of  the  Great  Stampede,  to  the 
feverish  prosperity  of  gold-dust  and  gambling-den,  when 
hopes  were  high  and  everything  was  wide  open,  and  cost 
was  not  considered,  and  money  was  spent  lavishly.    The 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  its  well-kept  and  diver- 
sified fields  clothing  the  uplands  with  patches  of  colour 
unwonted  in  Alaska,  looks  forward.    It  looks  forward  to 
farms  and  ranches,  to  meadow  and  pasture,  to  waving 
fields  and  lowing  herds.    It  looks  forward  and  points 
the  way.    I  could  grow  eloquent  over  the  contrast  did 
I  share  to  the  full  the  confident  expectations  of  the  agri- 
cultural experimenters.    They  have  done  very  valuable 
work,  beyond  question;  they  have  sought  the  world  over 
for  hardy  and  early  varieties  of  grain  that  would  yield 
in  this  adverse  climate,  and  they  have  proved  that  in 
favourable  spots  and  favourable  seasons  these  hardy  and 
early  varieties  will  ripen  here;  they  have  cultivated  with 
great  success  the  garden  vegetables,  and  have  selected 
and  distributed  the  seeds  most  suitable  for  the  soil. 
They  have  demonstrated  that  where  profit  and  loss  need 


m 

*  ' 

m 

j  i 

1 

1 

PROSPECTS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


I3S 


not  be  considered,  agriculture  is  possible  in  the  interior 
of  Alaska.  On  the  south  bank  of  the  river  the  shovel 
and  th'  gold-pan,  the  sluice-box  and  the  wheelbarrow  are 
still  tl.  implements  of  what  industry  there  is;  on  the 
north  b  nk  the  plough  and  the  harrow,  the  drill  and  the 

hoe  reign.  .        u 

The  juxtaposition  is  significant,  I  thmk,  rather  than 
the  contrast.  The  future  of  agriculture  in  the  interior 
of  Alaska  depends  on  the  future  of  mining  in  the  interior 
of  Alaska.  Take  away  the  government  subsidy  from 
the  farm,  and  the  amount  of  crops  of  any  kind  raised 
would  be  the  amount  that  the  miners  would  purchase. 
In  any  farming  for  profit  the  market  of  the  mines  is 
essential.  In  the  neighbourhood  of  mines,  and  nowhere 
else,  may  be  found  flourishing  and  profitable  truck-farms 

to-day.  , 

Isolated  by  geographical  situation,  and  enormously 
remote  from  any  centre  of  population,  what  can  arctic 
and  subarctic  Alaska  ever  hope  to  raise  for  export  from 
her  stubborn  frozen  soil  in  competition  with  other  lands  ? 
But  so  long  as  she  produces  gold  she  can  be  made  to  pro- 
duce almost  anything  else  in  reason  that  the  gold-miners 
desire.  New-laid  eggs  and  fresh  milk  and  cream  and 
butter  they  may  have;  the  garden  vegetables  in  profu- 
sion, even  cucumbers  and  tomatoes  raised  under  glass,  if 
they  will  pay  the  price;  and  they  will  always  pay  it  if 
they  have  it.     Farming  and  gold-mining  stand  or  fall 

together.  . 

None  the  less,  the  country  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  Federal  Government  for  the  setting  up  and  mam- 


136 


YUKON  RAPIDS 


If   't 


•I  4     I. 


taining  of  these  experiment  stations,  at  which  the  utmost 
capacity  of  its  soil  and  climate  is  gradually  bemg  ascer- 
tained. .   , 

Thirty  miles  or  so  beLw  Rampart  the  gorges  of  the 
river  grow  towards  their  maximum  of  picturesqueness, 
and  about  ten  miles  farther  reach  an  impressive  climax 
of  gloomy  deptu  and  lofty  height  between  their  steep 
mountain-walls.    Here  are  the  rapids;  the   channel  is 
constricted  by  rocks  and  presses  against  the  south  bank, 
and  the  great  volume  of  water  passing  through  a  narrow 
compass  with  considerable  grade  gives  a  very  swift, 
swirling  current,  though  it  presents  no  great  difficulty 
to  the  river  steamboats  unless  they  have  heavy  tow  of 
barges.    This  is  the  point  which  the  Russian  naval  lieu- 
tenant Zagoskin*  is  generally  credited  with  reaching  on 
his  voyage  up  the  Yukon  in  1842,  reporting  the  river  not 
navigable  any  farther.    The  traveller  who,  upon  reach- 
ing the  rapids,  has  already  passed  down  more  than  a 
thousand  mUes  of  the  river  in  a  comfortable  steamboat, 
may  smile  at  the  Russian  naval  officer  as  a  somewhat 
perfunctory  explorer,  and  indeed  it  is  certain  that  long 
before  any  steamboat  plied  these  waters  the  Hudson 
Bay  voyageurs  from  Fort  Yukon  came  down  through  the 
rapids  in  large  flat-bottomed  boats  loaded  with  trade 
goods,  and  returned  with  thq  furs  for  which  these  were 
bartered.    Old  natives  at  Tanana  still  tell  with  admira- 
tion of  the  bateaux  with  six  pairs  of  oars  which  brought 

.  It  should  be  noted  that  Dall  credL«  ^^^^^ff^liitl^'Z 
»s  the  Nowikaket,  but  it  is  hard  to  understand  why  he  should  declare  tne 
rb«unn^abU  above  that  point  whence  all  is  plam  sa.hng  to  Tanana. 


";l !  I' 


u> 


LONELY  SIGNAL  STATION 


137 


them  guns  and  blankets  and  powder  and  shot  and  tea 
and  tobacco,  and  gave  them  better  terms  than  the  Rus- 
sians from  Nulato  gave.  But  in  all  probability  Zagoskin 
was  the  first  white  man  to  voyage  thus  far  upon  the 
Yukon  River.  Knowing  nothing  of  the  geography  of 
the  country  beyond  his  own  explorations,  knowing  noth- 
ing of  the  immense  depth  of  the  narrow  channel  he  was 
pursuing,  penetrating  farther  and  farther  into  a  maze  of 
mountains  which  rose  ever  higher  and  higher,  it  was  no 
wonder  that  when  he  came  to  the  broken,  rushing  water 
of  the  rapids  in  the  depth  of  the  deepest  gorge,  with  the 
difficult  and  dangerous  tracking  over  the  boulders  of 
the  shore  necessary  to  pass  through  them,  he  assumed 
that  he  had  reached  the  limit  of  navigability  and  turned 
back. 

On  the  right  bank,  nearly  opposite  the  swiftest  water, 
is  an  abandoned  station  of  the  military  telegraph  line, 
that  used  to  follow  the  river  from  Tanana  as  far  as  Ram- 
part. Rampart  now  has  its  telegraphic  connection  by 
way  of  Hot  Springs  on  the  Tanana  River,  and  this  lonely 
station,  lonely  both  in  summer  and  winter,  no  longer 
condemns  two  men  of  the  Signal  Corps  to  exile  from 
mankind.  On  the  other  hand,  the  abandonment  of  this 
lonely  station  makes  the  Yukon  River  more  lonely— 
and  this  process  goes  steadily  on.  It  is  one  less  place  of 
refuge  from  the  storms  that  in  the  winter  rage  through 
the  Ramparts;  one  less  place  where  a  man  may  find 
shelter  and  fire  and  food.  Having  had  rest  and  refresh- 
ment there  on  several  well-remembered  occasions,  en- 
couraged to  press  on  against  the  snow-laden  blast  by 


ih 


138  CHIEF  TRIBUTARY  OF  YUKON 

the  knowledge  of  its  proximity  and  the  anticipation  of 
its  hospitality,  the  writer  cannot  but  regret  its  abandon- 
ment. So  violent  are  the  wind-storms  that  prevail 
within  the  Ramparts  for  the  greater  part  of  the  winter 
that  the  ice  is  commonly  swept  entirely  free  of  snow, 
and  sometimes  for  twenty  miles  at  a  stretch  its  surface 
is  burnished  by  the  constant  attrition  into  a  beautiful 
appearance  of  translucent  black  crystal,  its  cracks  visible 
down  through  all  the  six  feet  or  more  of  its  thickness. 

Between  mountain  barriers  of  the  same  general  char- 
acter as  heretofore,  though  gradually  lessening  in  height, 
the  Yukon  now  approaches  its  most  important  conflu- 
ence, the  confluence  with  the  Xanana,  which  enters  from 
the  south  almost  at  a  right  angle;  but  the  Yukon  itself 
turns  almost  at  a  right  angle  to  receive  its  tributary,  so 
that  at  the  point  of  junction  the  directions  of  the  two 
streams  coincide,  and  for  three  miles  they  flow  side  by 
side,  with  islands  between  them,  the  waters  gradually 
commingling  until  the  town  of  Tanana  is  passed. 

Just  at  this  right-angle  bend,  where  a  lofty  mountain- 
ous bluff  rises  from  the  north  bank  of  the  river  and  the 
channel  flows  around  its  base,  the  Ramparts  end,  and  the 
prospect  opens  out  to  right  and  left  into  the  vast  valley 
of  the  lower  Yukon.  So  soon  as  the  corner  is  turned 
and  the  river  is  out  of  the  Ramparts,  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Mission  of  Our  Saviour  appears,  picturesquely 
situated  on  steeply  rising  ground,  with  a  large  hospital 
(twin  to  that  at  Fort  Yukon)  on  a  bench  of  the  hillside, 
and  a  capacious  and  handsome  church,  adjoining  a 
graveyard  with  beautiful  birch-trees,  near  the  river;  the 


i'Ji 


i, 


THE  TOWN  OF  TANANA 


139 


native  village  straggling  along  the  bank  for  two  or  three 
hundred  yard*.  In  another  couple  of  mile*  the  town  of 
Tanana  it  reached  and  the  boat  ties  up  to  the  wharf  of 
the  most  important  place,  in  a  general  way,  on  the 
American  Yukon.  In  '-oint  of  population  Ruby  exceeds 
it,  but  Ruby  is  the  pou  of  a  mining-camp  merely;  it 
sprang  up  in  a  night  and  will  dwindle  and  die,  as  Ram- 
part has  dwindled  and  died,  when  the  placers  in  the 
hills  behind  it  are  exhausted. 

It  is  the  peculiarity  of  Tanana  that  it  is  not  directly 
dependent  on  mining.  Its  importance  is  due  partly  to 
the  army  post.  Fort  Gibbon,  which  adjoins  it,  and  partly 
to  its  situation  at  the  confluence  of  the  Yukon  with  its 
chief  and  most  populous  tributary.  It  is  a  transfer 
point  and  a  trading  point;  if  the  visitor  go  on  down  the 
river,  he  will  probably  have  to  change  boats  here,  for 
the  regular  steamers  from  Dawson  turn  up  the  Tanana 
River  to  Fairbanks,  and  he  may  have  to  wait  several 
days,  or  even  a  week,  despite  all  assurances  to  the  con- 
trary. 

The  confluence  of  the  Yukon  and  the  Tanana  has 
always  been  an  important  point  and  probably  always 
will  be  Before  the  white  man's  time  it  was  the  great 
summer  gathering-place,  and  Indians  from  far  up  the 
Tanana  River,  and  even  from  the  upper  Kuskokwim,  met 
here  with  those  from  the  upper  and  the  lower  Yukon 
for  barter  of  furs  and  commodities. 

Just  as  the  mouth  of  the  Kobuk  River  in  Kouebue 
Sound  has  for  ages  been  the  summer  meeting  and  trading 
place  of  the  Eskimos  from  Point  Barrow  to  Cape  Prince 


II 


Hi\ 


I40 


A  TRADER'S  EMPORIUM 


of  Wale«,  and  itill  gathen  many  hundred*  every  year, 
lo  thi.  place,  Nu-cha-la-woy-ya*  in  the  native  tongue 
("betMk-een  the  rivers"),  wa»  the  great  rendexvoui  of  the 
Indians  of  the  interior.  By  trade  with  the  coast  Indians 
of  Prince  William's  Sound  and  the  Lynn  Canal,  with 
E  nos  from  Bering  Sea,  who  all  came  into  not  infre- 
quent contact  with  ships  and  sailors  well  before  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  by  trade  with  the  tribes 
of  the  Mackenzie  who  dealt  with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany's posts,  passing  from  hand  to  hand,  from  tribe  to 
tribe,  the  white  man's  axes  and  files  and  knives  were 
brought  here  and  distributed  over  the  interior. 

Very  old  men  living  to^lay  cannot  remember  when 
steel  and  iron  tools  were  not  in  use,  though  they  remem- 
ber them  as  scarce  and  precious.  Some  of  them  state 
that  theif  fathers  remembered  the  use  of  stone  axes,  but 
the  oldest  living  natives  cannot  remember  ever  seeing  a 

stone  axe. 

As  early  as  1778,  when  Cook  visited  the  natives  of 
Prince  William's  Sound,  he  found  iron  arrow-heads  and 
knives  amongst  them,  and  on  seeking  to  discover  whence 
they  had  them,  they  pointed  to  the  east,  and  he  rightly 
conjectured  that  they  had  come  all  across  the  continent 
from  the  factories  on  Hudson's  Bay.    Even  before  that, 

•  I  muit  »k  th.  read«  to  bear  with  thii  npte-or  ikip  it-«  it «  wnt«n 
more  foTmv  own  latirfaction  than  hii.  Th.te  i>  a  .ingular  unamimty  arnongit 
Jinlrlv  wrU«"  "rem  Dall  to  Schwatka.  in  mUcalling  tl...  place  Nudacay- 

t'endTan  after  Indian,  however,  ha.  auured  me  that  th.«  w«  n^ 
!ueh  name  and  I  conclude  that  theK  writen  did  not  receive  the  name  from 

ntn  iTp.' S:f  from  white  men.  who  handed  out  to •-«"'«™'"3*« 
corrupted  fo.m.  But  I  can  End  no  trace  whatever  on  the  nver  K«lay  of 
the  corrupted  form. 


INDIAN  CIVILISATION  141 

in  1741.  when  Bering  landed  on  Shumagin  Island  and 
buried  a  sailor  (for  w  horn  he  named  the  island),  he  it  .aid 
to  have  found  native*  wearing  iron  knives  at  their  gir- 
dies.  So  when  Clive  ransacked  the  treasury  at  Moor- 
shedabad  after  the  battle  of  Plassey,  he  found  Venetian 
florins  and  Byzantine  sequins  which  had  been  received 
hundreds  of  years  before  in  payment  for  goods  that  had 
paued  through  an  immense  number  of  hands  in  barter 
ere  they  reached  the  consumers  in  Europe.  The  won- 
derful ramifications  of  indirect  trade  and  its  irresistible 
power  of  penetrating  all  barriers  would  be  a  fascinating 
subject  for  a  theme,  for  wliich  history  would  furnish 
many  picturesque  illustrations. 

In  the  classification  of  the  archseologist  the  natives  of 
the  mtenor  were  in  that  period  of  development  known  as 
the  stone  age-though  it  might  puzzle  Henry  Fairfield 
Osborn  himself  to  say  in  what  precise  division  there  >(_ 
when  they  began  to  come  in  contact  with  the  products 
of  the  white  man's  civilisation,  nearly  a  century  before 
they  came  into  contact  with  the  white  man  himself 
They  had  domesticated  the  dog;  they  used  flint-headed 
arrows  and  spears;  they  wove  nets  and  baskets  from  the 
fibre  of  the  spruce  root;  shaped  admirable  canoes  from 
the  bark  of  the  birch,  and  toboggans  and  snowshoes  from 
Its  wood.     They  clothed  themselves  with  the  furs  and 
housed  themselves  under  the  hides  of  animals  killed  in 
the  cha  e.  and  had  a  rude  unglazed  potterv.    They  seem 
to  have  made  already  all  that  was  to  be  made  of  their 
meagre  resources  and  their  harsh  environment-   it   is 
difficult  to  see  how  they  could  have  advanced  any  further 


i 


•  M 


-l  !  I 


■  1   ;♦,  j 


142  ETHNOLOGICAL  AFFINITIES 

without  impulse  from  another  race,  and  quite  impossible 
even  to  conjecture  how  long  they  had  lingered  at  this 
stage.  In  sinking  a  well  at  the  Allakaket,  on  the  Koyu- 
kuk  River  just  at  the  arctic  circle,  fragments  of  pottery 
and  of  wooden  implements  were  brought  up  from  twenty- 
five  feet  below  the  surface. 

Some  resemblance  in  feature  and  expression  which 
certain  individuals  amongst  them  display  to  the  Japa- 
nese often  prompts  inquiries  amongst  visitors  whether  the 
race  be  of  Mongolian  origin.  The  only  answer  that  can 
be  given  is  that  there  is  no  ground  for  such  belief— or, 
for  that  matter,  for  any  other  belief  as  to  their  origin. 
Where  nothing  is  known,  one  man's  guess  is  as  good  as 
another's. 

They  are  classed  by  ethnologists  with  the  Athabas- 
can race,  the  general  race  that  so  many  tribes  of  North 
America  belong  to,  and  the  problem  of  their  origin, 
therefore,  merges  in  the  larger  problem,  which  in  all 
probability  is  quite  insoluble.  What  little  evidence 
there  is  seems  to  indicate  that  they  came  into  Alaska 
from  the  East  rather  than  from  the  West;  from  the 
Mackenzie  River  country  rather  than  from  Asia,  but  the 
only  positive  opinion  to  which  I  am  willing  to  commit 
myself,  after  some  examination  of  the  subject,  is  that 
they  are  not  descended  from  the  "Lost  Ten  Tribes  of 

Israel." 

There  is  probably  little  additional  ethnological  or 
archaeological  data  of  value  concerning  these  people 
recoverable.  A  sufficient  examination  of  their  language 
and  legends,  their  manners  and  customs,  has  already  been 


STONE  AXES 


143 


made  by  competent  hands,  Father  Jette,  S.J.,  nf  Ta- 
nana,  who  has  spent  many  years  of  precise  and  patient 
study  of  them,  being  the  recognised  authority  upon  them 
in  scientific  circles.    Their  traditions  and  folk-lore  al- 
ready show  traces  of  the  unconscious  influence  of  the 
white  man's  teaching,  and  much  that  they  begin  to 
grow  ashamed  or  contemptuous  of  is  suppressed  when 
they  can  be  persuaded  to  a  narration.    The  relics  of 
indigenous  culture  have  disappeared;  on  several  occa- 
sions I  have  met  learned  representatives  of  museums 
searching  the  country  for  specimens  of  primitive  handi- 
craft and  finding  none,  and  in  twelve  years  I  have  been 
able  to  procure  one  stone  axe  and  have  seen  two  others. 
One  of  these  two  others  had  the  special  interest  that  it 
was  found  near  the  mouth  of  Beaver  Creek  on  the  Yukon, 
beside  some  ancient  tree  stumps  that  bore  every  ap- 
pearance of  having  been  cut  with  it,  and  I  was  sorry 
that  I  was  unable  to  visit  the  place  and  verify  the  cir- 
cumstance for  myself.    The  finder  said  that  at  first  sight 
he  thought  the  trees  had  been  gnawed  by  beavers.    As 
one  looks  back  one  grows  to  a  great  respect  for  these 
people,    maintaining   a   brave    and    successful    contest 
against  the    utmost   inclemency  of  nature   with   such 
crude  weapons  and  tools.    Their  descendants  at  Tanana 
are  decadent;  every  year  the  deaths  exceed  the  births 
and  the  village  dwindK  s  as  the  graveyard  grows. 

When  the  somewhat  limited  resources  of  Tanana  are 
exhausted  many  visitors  walk  out  the  two  and  a  half 
miles  from  the  town  to  the  Mission  to  relieve  the  tedium 
of  waiting  day  after  day  for  a  steamboat,  and  often 


I 


I     1 

;    i 


m 


>44 


INDIAN  MORTALITY 


grow  enthusiastic  over  the  picturesque  graveyard  full  of 
brightly  painted  graves  nestling  amongst  beautiful  birch- 
trees.  But  the  writer  being  deeply  concerned  in  the 
preservation  of  Alaska's  native  population  can  take 
little  interest  in  a  picturesque  graveyard  that  is  gradu- 
ally swallowing  up  that  population  with  no  progeny  left 
behind  to  continue  the  race. 

The  reader  may  recall  the  tabk  of  births  and  deaths 
at  Fort  Yukon  over  a  period  of  five  years,  and  the  in- 
crease of  population  which  it  represents.  For  the  same 
quinquennium  there  is  a  steady  decrease  at  Tanana; 
indeed,  there  has  not  been  a  year  for  ten  years  past 
when  the  births  have  exceeded  the  deaths— until  1916, 
when  the  births  have  a  slight  preponderance. 

Why  is  it  that  at  Fort  Yukon  the  Indians  are  stead- 
ily increasing  and  at  Tanana  are  steadily  decreasing  ? 
They  are  offshoots  of  the  same  stock,  of  the  same  gen- 
eral habits  and  character  and  mode  of  life,  have  been 
for  years  under  the  same  religious  influence.  So  far  as 
location  is  concerned  the  Tanana  Indians  have  rather 
the  better  of  it;  the  salmon  are  fatter  and  more  plentiful 
here  than  they  are  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  farther 
up  the  river,  the  climate  is  slightly  less  severe,  there  is  a 
little  more  sun  in  the  winter,  access  to  the  haunts  of 
the  big  game  is  somewhat  easier;  berries  of  all  kinds  are 
abundant,  while  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Fort  Yukon 
they  are  not  found  at  all;  and  who  would  not  rather  live 
amongst  these  pleasant  hills  than  in  the  gloomy  wilder- 
ness of  the  Yukon  Flats  ?  All  things  considered,  I  am 
of  opinion  that  the  natives  of  this  mid-section  of  the 


:i  h 


Tim:  ,  ii,  k(  ii    (xj,  nK.ivivvK,,   v,  tjik  x  ,th  k  miwi,.x  a,  Tvnam. 


M 


Till    CRAVEYAHl)   AT 


THE    MlbSlKX   OF  TaxaW 


i'i 


I    ':k  i 


n 


s!    I 


THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


145 


river  are  more  favourably  situated  for  the  needs  of 
Indian  livelihood  than  those  much  above  them  or  much 
below. 

The  inquirer  who  will  look  around  him  at  Tanana 
may  find  the  answer  without  much  difficulty.  There  is 
the  army  post  with  Its  soldiers;  there  is  the  town  with 
its  saloons.  A  special  agent  of  the  Department  of  Jus- 
tice reported  a  few  years  ago  that  no  less  than  forty 
white  men,  in  and  around  Tanana,  made  their  living  or 
a  part  of  their  living,  peddling  liquor  to  the  Indians. 
Liquor  and  lewdness — and  where  do  not  the  two  go  hand 
in  hand  ? — are  destroying  these  people.  The  children 
are  born  diseased,  of  drunken  and  diseased  parents,  and 
find  an  early  resting-place  in  that  picturesque  graveyard. 
The  chief  of  the  tribe  died  lately  of  an  alcoholic  debauch, 
and  one  of  the  gayest  of  those  graves  is  his. 

One  takes  encouragement  from  the  recent  decisive 
vote  of  'he  people  of  Alaska  in  favour  of  the  prohibition 
of  alcoholic  liquors  and  the  "bone-dry"  law  which  Con- 
gress thereupon  enacted,  but  one's  encouragement  would 
be  more  buoyant  were  there  grounds  of  past  experience 
for  an  expectation  that  the  law  will  be  thoroughly  en- 
forced. There  must  be  a  change  in  the  system  of  magis- 
tracy and  a  change  ir  the  system  of  police  before  this 
will  be  possible,  and  there  seems  little  likelihood  that  the 
United  States  Congress,  the  only  authority  adequate  to 
that  change,  can  be  moved  to  make  it.  Territories 
have  always  been  justiced  by  commissioners  living  upon 
fees,  have  always  been  policed  by  United  States  marshals 
and  their  deputies;   and  there  is  no  more  conservative 


i 


t 

% 


146 


MT.  DENALI 


Bf  i  rJi 


body  on  earth  than  our  Congress  when  it  is  not  under 
the  influence  of  panic.  ^    ,.    ,        n,  ,„ 

The  visitor  who  has  leisure  to  take  the  httle  walk  to 
the  Mission  should  look  out.  if  it  be  a  clear  day,  from 
the  vantage-ground  of  the  hospital  for  the  fine  v.ew  that 
it  affords  of  Alaska's  great  mountain.  Denali,  or  Mt. 
McKinley.  looming  like  a  white  cloud  on  the  southern 
horizon-one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  away.    Rising  wel 
above  twenty  thousand  feet,  it  is  not  only  the  loftiest 
mountain  of  the  North  American  continent,  but  .t  is  the 
most  northerly  mountain  of  the  first  class  ■"■  the  world. 
If  he  be  intending  the  journey  to  Fairbanks  he  wdl  have 
other  and  somewhat  nearer  views  of  it,  but  if  h.s  course 
lie  down  the  Yukon  this  will  be  the  only  opportunity  for 
seeing  it  at  all;  and  since  weather  clear  enough  to  dis- 
close the  mountain  is  rare  in  the  summer-time,  he  will 
do  well  to  avaU  himself  of  this  chance  in  either  case,  for 
it  is  perhaps  the  finest  sight  interior  Alaska  has  to  dis- 

^'^The  geographical  position  which  made  Tanana  an 
important  native  place  has  made  it  an  i«PO";.'"J'''"; 
place.  It  determined  the  location  of  Fort  Gibbon  m 
1900,  and  had  already  brought  storekeepers  and  traders. 
BuTit  was  the  discovery  of  gold  three  hundred  miles  up 
the  Tanana  River,  and  the  building  of  Fairbanks  in 
,903,  and  the  great  development  and  growth  of  the  next 
year,  that  really  established  the  place.  It  «  the  "lost 
central  spot  of  the  interior,  and  in  the  day  when  Alaska 
is  divided  into  manageable  portions,  should  be  the  capi- 
tal of  the  Yukon.    In  the  winter  the  trunk  trails  to 


ARMY-POST  LIFE  147 

Fairbanks  and  the  souther.  coas,t,  to  the  Koyukuk  and 
the  northern  mines,  to  all  the  lower  river  points  and 
Nome,  meet  here;  in  the  summer  all  steamboats  up  and 
down  the  Yukon  and  up  and  down  the  Tanana  meet 
here  and  transfer  passengers  and  freight. 

The  army  post  will  not  detain  visitors  long;  there  is 
no  stateliness  of  building  or  careful  laying  out  of  ground; 
climatic  conditions  are,  of  course,  averse;  the  two  years' 
sojourn  of  officers  and  men  is  not  long  enough  to  arouse 
the  desire  of  making  the  place  attractive;  it  is  too  often 
thought  of  by  both  as  an  exile  to  be  borne  as  best  it  may 
and  to  be  terminated  with  joy;  by  both,— and  especially 
by  their  wives.    There  is  no  military  pomp  or  parade 
whatever;  I  have  been  there  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
when  not  the  slightest  notice  was  taken  of  the  day;  I 
have  been  there  when  the  governor  of  Alaska  made'  a 
visit,  and  not  the  slightest  notice  was  taken  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  Alaska,  although  by  the  regulations  of  the  army 
itself  he  is  entitled  to  his  salute  of  guns  at  any  post 
within  his  Territory.    A  flag  is  raised  and  lowered  and  a 
gun  is  fired  every  day;  the  rest  is  fatigue  duty  with  a 
moving-picture  show  twice  a  week. 

TTie  army  post  is  important  to  Tanana  from  a  com- 
mercial point  of  view,  and  it  is  important,  also,  from  a 
social  point  of  view.  However  poor  their  taste  as  archi- 
tects, however  little  effort  be  made  to  represent  the 
majesty  of  the  United  States,  there  is  always  a  certain 
dignity  and  urbanity  about  the  officers  of  the  army 
themselves,  and  it  is  no  small  thing  to  domicile  a  dozen 
men  of  culture  and  intelligence  with  their  wives  and 


,48  ARMY  SURGEON'S  SERVICE 

families  in  the  midst  of  interior  Alaska.  They  usually 
mix  freely  with  the  substantial  families  of  the  town,  and 
give  a  tone  to  Tanana  society  that  no  other  place  m  the 
interior  can  boast. 

This  tone  at  Tanana,  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
telegraph  lines  by  the  Signal  Corps,  represent  the  ac- 
complishment of  a  military  garrison  which,  ^y  I  am 
informed  on  good  authority,  costs  the  United  States  at 
least  j$3  50,000  a  year  to  maintain. 

One  other  matter  connected   with  the   army   post 
should  be  mentioned,  the  kind  willingness  of  the  post 
surgeons  to  give  of  their  time  and  trouble  in  attendmg 
to  the  ills  of  the  natives  of  the  village.    There  is  no 
medical  man  at  the  native  hospital  at  this  wn   ..g- 
though  one  is  under  appointment-nor  has  been  for 
some  years,  and  it  is  always  an  exceedingly  difficult  thing 
to  procure  suitable  men  willing  to  undertake  this  work. 
There  is  no  greater  need  for  the  world's  primitive  people 
to-day  than  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of  men  trained 
in  medicine  who  are  willing  to  devote  themselves,  with- 
out much  hope  of  reward  or  renown,  to  medical  mission- 
ary work.    So  it  has  been  of  immense  assistance  to 
those  labouring  at  this  Mission  that  the  army  surgeons 
at  Fort  Gibbon  have  always  been  willing  to  lend  their 
cheerful  and  capable  services. 


CHAPTER  V 

XANANA  TO  NULATO 

We  are  now  more  than  half-way  down  the  navigable 
Yukon,  and  have  left  narrow  confines  and  rocky  gorges 
behind  us  for  good.    The  great  valley  we  have  entered  is 
sharply  bounded  for  hundreds  of  miles  more  on  the  north 
by  rnountains  for  the  most  part  contiguous  and  never 
far  distant,  but  it  stretches  out  to  the  south  in  vast 
forested   areas.    The  Yukon  grows   markedly  broader 
and  more  affluent  after  receiving  the  Tanana.    Much 
water  will,  of  course,  yet  discharge  into  it  along  the 
eight  or  nine  hundred  miles  it  must  traverse  to  its  mouth 
but  It  has  now  received  the  greater  part  of  its  flood,  and 
has  a  strength  and  copiousness  that  begin  to  make  mani- 
fest Its  rank  amongst  the  world's  great  rivers. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  refer  to  an  inter- 
esting phenomenon  touching  this  river's  flow.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  great  rivers  of  Siberii.  the  Obi,  the 
Yenesei,  and  the  Lena,  which  have  in  the  main  a  due 
northerly  course  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  exhibit  over  that 
whole  course  high  eastern  or  right-hand  banks  and  low 
^ft-hand  banks.  Nordenskiold,  in  the  "Voyage  of  the 
Vega"-a  most  comprehensive  gathering  of  information 
touching  the  high  latitudes  of  Asia,  as  well  as  a  narrative 
of  the  making  of  the  northeast  passagf^draws  attention 
to  this  circumstance;  and  Nansen,  in  the  very  able  ac- 


ISO       CURRENT  DEVIATION  PHENOMENA 
count  of  hi.  recent  Siberian  journey  on  behalf  of  the 
Russian  Government,  refers  to  it  and  discusses  it  at  some 
length.    The  explanation  is  obvious;  the  rotation  of  the 
earth  on  its  axis  from  west  to  east  throws  the  mobile 
water  against  the  eastern  bank,  and  in  the  course  of 
ages  the  rivers  have  eaten  away  their  eastern  banks  and 
moved  over  slowly  but  bodily  to  the  east,  until  they 
have  encountered  some  rocky  barrier  that  checks  fur- 
ther advance,  leaving  low,  alluvial  land  behind  them  to 
the  west;  and  are  still  so  cutting  and  moving.    Now  the 
Yukon  River,  so  soon  as  it  emerges  from  the  rocky  con- 
fines of  the  Ramparts,  down  virtually  to  the  beginning 
of  the  delta  at  its  mouth,  displays  the  same  phenome- 
non- it  presses  continuously  upon  its  right  bank.    But 
the  curious  and  interesting  thing  about  it  is  that  its 
course  is  not  to  the  north  at  all;  it  has  a  general  south- 
westerly direction,  and  for  the  two  hundred  odd  miles 
that  lie  immediately  before  us,  from  Tanana  to  Nulato, 
its  course  is  almost  due  west.    Occasionally  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  a  tributary  coming  in  on  the  right  which 
deposits  a  bar,  or  of  some  other  obstruction,  or  on  the 
rare  occurrence  of  rocky  bluffs  on  the  left  limit,  as  in 
the  region  of  Melozikaket,  the  channel  swings  to  the 
left  bank,  bu    over  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  dis- 
tance the  channel  hugs  the  mountains  of  the  right  bank 
and  leaves  the  low  alluvial  ground  on  its  left,  just  as 
the  Siberian  rivers  do.    What  effect  can  the  earths 
rotation  have  upon  a  river  flowing  mainly  east  or  west . 
Only   it  would  seem,  that  of  hastening  or  checking  its 
stream.    The   rule   deduced   by   Nordenskiold   is   that 


MEANING  OF  "KAKET"  iji 

rivers  that  deviate  much  from  the  parallels  of  latitude 
will  display  the  effect  of  the  earth's  rotation  that  he  de- 
scribes, but  here  is  a  river  which,  in  this  long  stretch, 
deviates  little  from  the  parallels  and  yet  displays  it  in  a 
marked  degree. 

Again,  from  the  Koyukuk  mouth  to  Ikogmutc  (Rus- 
Stan  Mission),  a  distance  of  upwards  of  three  hundred 
miles,  the  river  leaves  its  westerly  and  drops  into  a 
nearly  due  southerly  course,  deviating  more  widely  from 
the  parallels  of  latitude  than  it  does  in  any  other  equal 
stretch  of  its  own  length.  But  this  deviation  being 
southerly  should,  by  the  Nordenskiold  rule,  throw  the 
waters  against  the  left  bank  of  the  river  instead  of  the 
right;  yet  here,  also,  the  channel  almost  continually 
presses  against  the  right  bank.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  see  this  matter  fully  discussed  and  the  circumstances 
explained,  for  it  can  hardly  be  mere  chance  that  over 
many  hundreds  of  miles  the  Yukon  hugs  so  closely  its 
right  or  northern  limit. 

Nine  or  ten  miles  below  Tanana  Tozikaket  is  passed, 
where  the  Yukon  receives  its  tributary,  the  Tozitna 
Since  a  number  of  "kakets"  or  "chakets"  will  be  passed, 
the  reader  may  be  informed  that  this  suffix  in  the  Indian 
tongue  of  these  parts  means  "mouth,"  and  is  aaded  to 
the  name  of  the  river  to  signify  the  mouth  of  the  river 
in  this  way:  the  termination  "na,"  which  signifies 
"nver^'  or  "water,"  is  struck  off,  together  with  the 
preceding  consonant,  if  there  be  one,  and  "kaket"  is 
suffixed  to  th'  root  that  remains.  Thus  the  mauth  of 
the  Tozitna  is  Tozikaket;  the  mouth  of  the  Nowitna  is 


' '  >rj 


I* 

fill! 


'I  !' 


I  SI  LINGUISTIC  VARIATIONS 

Nowikiket;  the  mouth  of  the  Meiorltna  is  Mcl6zikiket 
— and  there  are  scores  of  others  along  not  only  the 
Yukon  but  the  Xanana  and  the  Koyukuk;  throughout, 
Jndeed,  the  whole  range  of  this  language.  The  knowl- 
edge that  the  syllables  "kaket"  mean  mouth,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  simple  rule  of  inflection  just  given, 
led  the  map-makers,  some  years  ago,  to  write  the  names 
of  the  rivers  mentioned  above,  "Tozi,"  "Nowi,"  "Me- 
lozi,"  which  are  not  Indian  forms  at  all;  but  the  proper 
forms  have  of  late  been  restored. 

The  struggles  of  the  early  explorers  with  these  names 
and  the  extraordinary  results  they  print  are  sometimes 
amusing,  and  illustrate  the  famous  Captain  Cook's  ob- 
servation made  while  he  was  cruising  on  the  Alasknn 
coast  that  he  had  frequently  found  "that  the  same  words, 
written  down  by  two  or  more  persons  from  the  mouth  of 
the  same  native,  differed  not  a  little."  Whymper  writes 
Tozikaket  "Towshecargot,"  and  with  Schwatka  Nowika- 
ket  becomes  "Newicargut."  Dall,  however,  whose  ears 
as  well  as  eyes  were  by  far  the  best  ot  any  of  the  early 
Yukon  travellers,  writes  the  names  almost  exactly  as  they 
are  written  now.  Dall's  "  Alaska  and  Its  Resources  "  was 
published  in  1870;  if  Schwatka,  whose  journey  was  thir- 
teen years  later,  had  taken  the  trouble  to  read  it,  he 
would  have  been  spared  a  great  many  blunders.  I  have 
spoken  of  Ball's  book  before;  let  me  say  here  that  I 
never  turn  to  it  without  being  struck  afresh  with  the 
wealth  of  accurate  observation  and  judicious  reflection 
it  contains. 

About  sixteen  miles  below  Xanana,  on  the  right  bank. 


i'*; 


r  I 


OLD  TRADING-POST  153 

was  an  old  native  village  and  trading-pcxt  (to  which  the 
corrupted  name  Nuclacayette  was  transferred),  dating 
back  to  the  early  trading  days  before  the  gold  stampedes 
of  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century— now  long 
since  abandoned  for  the  town  of  Tanana.    When  Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka  made  his  raft  journey  down  the  Yukon 
in  1883  this  was  the  most  important  trading-post  on  the 
river.    McQuestion,  Harper,  and  Mayo,  the  first  white 
men  other  than  the  Russians  and  the  "Hudson's  Bay 
Company's  servants"  who  came  to  live  on  the  Yukon, 
had  their  headquarters  here,  managing,  at  that  time,  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company's  business,  a  San  Francisco 
corporation  which  entered  upon  the  Alaskan  trade  soon 
after  the  Purchase,  and  until  two  or  three  years  ago  still 
held    the   valuable    sealing   monopoly   of  the    Pribilof 
Islands.    Of  the  three  men  mentionea  Alfred  Mayo  still 
survives  at  Rampart,  beyond  any  question  the  oldest 
living  Alaskan  pioneer.    This  place,  which  figures  more 
largely  than  any  other  in  the  early  narratives  of  the 
river,  and  thus  deserves  mention  here,  has  long  since 
quite  disappeared. 

A  few  cabins  about  the  mouth  of  Grant  Creek,  on 
which  creek  was  a  factitious  mining  excitement  some 
years  ago  which  involved  (and  overwhelmed)  a  command- 
ing officer  at  Fort  Gibbon,  are  presently  passed,  and  the 
main  stream  of  the  river  swings  over  to  some  remarkable 
cliffs  of  frozen  mud  on  the  left  bank,  known  as  "the  bone- 
yard."  As  the  sun  thaws  these  bluffs  all  the  summer 
through,  and  the  face  sloughs  off  into  sticky,  evil-smell- 
ing muck,  quantities  of  bones  of  great  extinct  mammals 


'  '  1 


1 54 


MAMMOTH  REMAINS 


it 


<-fl 


are  uncovered.    The  occurrence  of  these  remains  of  the 
mammoth  and  mastodon  throughout  the  northern  parts 
of  America  and  Asia  and  Europe,  is  well  known  and  has 
often  been  described  and  discussed.    Indeed,  it  is  said 
that  no  other  extinct  animals  have  left  such  abundant 
traces  behind  them.    Kotzebue  first  drew  attention  to 
these  remains  in  Alaska  when  he  found  skulls  and  bones 
in  the  great  ice  cliffs  of  Escholtz  Bay  of  his  Sound  in 
1815.     They  are  plentifully  distributed  thioughout  the 
whole  interior  of  Alaska.     Almost  any  sand-bar  will 
yield  a  tooth.    I  know  an  empty  cabin  on  Crooked 
Creek  in  the  Chandalar-Koyukuk  country,  where   an 
enormous  mammoth  tusk  reposes,  brought  up  from  a 
shaft— as  I  was  informed— at  a  depth  of  nearly  two 
hundred  feet,  the  sole  product  of  an  expected  gold-mine. 
I  think  anybody  might  take  it  who  would  be  at  the 
labour  of  removing  it.    One's  surprise  and  speculation 
are,  however,  aroused  at  such  great  accumulations  of 
bones  as  these  mud  cliffs  contain;  what  killed  the  beasts 
and  then  gathered  their  carcasses  together,  how  came 
they  embedded  in  the  muck  and  then  frozen  into  a  solid 
layer  two  or  three  hundred  feet  thick  ?— these  are  ques- 
tions that  one  naturally  asks,  but  must  be  content  to 
leave  unanswered.    It  is  well  known  that  in  ti.e  tundra 
of  Siberia  whole  carcasses  have  been  found  embedded  in 
ice,  the  flesh  so  perfectly  kept  from  decay  in  this  cold 
storage  that  it  was  fed  to  the  dogs,  and  even  some  of  it 
eaten  by  men.    No  such  discovery  has,  I  think,  ever  been 
made  in  Alaska,  but  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  tundra  of 
the  arctic  slope  may  hide  similar  complete  remains. 


w 


AN  UfTRACED  CRIME  155 

A  few  miles  l.^low  the  b(-  .eyard  we  come  to  the 
Nowikaket  on  the  '-vh  bniik,  tl  e  river  discharging  into  a 
bay  or  harbour.  The  attiuencs  of  the  left  bank  in  this 
region  are  not  important,  or  navigable  for  many  miles: 
they  rise  in  the  mountains  which  form  the  watershed 
between  the  Yukon  and  the  Kuskokwim,  which  river,  the 
second  largest  in  Alaska,  now  begins  to  flow  in  a  course 
generally  parallel  with  the  Yukon,  into  Bering  Sea.  On 
the  opposite  shore,  a  little  below,  is  Mouse  Point,  and  I 
well  remember  a  story  told  me  by  the  trader  at  Mouse 
Point,  a  man  above  the  ordinary  intelligence,  on  my 
first  visit  to  the  place— a  story  whicd  illustrates  the 
utter  neglect  of  Alaska  by  the  government  of  the  United 
States  until  a  few  years  ago. 

This  trader  had  come  across  the  river  to  the  Nov/i- 
kaket  in  the  spring  of  1902  on  some  occasion  of  business, 
and  had  noticed  the  remains  of  an  old  camp  destroyed 
by  fire.  Rummaging  among  the  debris,  he  uncovered 
the  charred  body  of  a  man,  the  skull  cleft  as  by  the 
blow  of  an  axe.  With  some  companions  he  returned  a 
little  later  to  make  a  thorough  search,  and  their  investi- 
gations left  little  doubt  that  robbery  and  murder  had 
been  done  here  the  previous  summer.  Two  large  gold- 
pokes  of  moosehide  were  found,  empty,  but  with  enough 
dust  still  clinging  to  the  sides  of  the  sacks  to  satisfy  the 
experienced  prospectors  that  it  was  Klondike  gold.  An 
old  battered  clock,  as  I  recollect,  also  bearing  the  name 
of  a  Dawson  dealer,  was  found,  and  some  other  personal 
relics. 

A  careful  statement  of  what  had  been  discovered. 


y| 


■J] 


1.1 


:i 


Jl  I 


!  P> 


,56  A  RUSSIAN  PIONEER 

substantiated  by  the  signatures  of  the  discoverers,  was 
sent  to  the  nearest  United  States  court— then  at  Eagle 
—and  to  the  Department  of  Justice  at  Washington,  and 
repeated  attempts  to  secure  some  judicial  investigation 
were  made.  But  not  the  slightest  notice  was  taken,  and 
no  effort  was  ever  made  to  identify  the  victim  or  dis- 
cover and  secure  the  criminal.  Finally  a  hole  was  dug 
and  the  body  interred— and  there  it  lies  yet,  unidenti- 
fied, unavenged.  There  is  little  doubt  that  other  such 
crimes  were  committed  with  like  impunity. 

A  few  miles  below  Mouse  Point,  on  the  same  side  of 
the  river,  we  reach  Kokerines,  a  native  village  under 
Roman  Catholic  charge,  with  a  trading-post,  a  church, 
a  government  school,  and  a  telegraph  station.  This  is 
the  beginning  of  Roman  Catholic  native  work  on  the 
Yukon;  from  this  point  they  divide  the  river  with  the 
Greek  Church,  save  that  at  Anvik  the  Episcopal  Church 
has  an  old-established  and  important  Mission. 

"Kokerines"  is  named  for  an  old  Russian  settler  who 
had  a  numerous  half-breed  progeny  by  a  succession  of 
native  wives.  I  can  find  no  reference  to  him  in  Dall  or 
Whymper  or  Schwatka,  though  Lieutenant  Allen  in  1885 
mentions  him  as  agent  for  the  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany, and  spells  his  name  Cochrein,  which,  for  aught  I 
know,  may  have  been  the  right  way  to  spell  it.  Yet  he 
came  during  the  Russian  occupation,  and  when  he  died, 
not  many  years  ago,  must  have  been  the  oldest  white 
settler  on  the  Yukon.  Several  of  his  daughters  are 
married  to  substantial  white  men. 

The  "Kokerine  Mountains,"  on  the  right  bank,  pUe 


1^! 


n 


I 


\ 

1'- 

ill 

M- 

t 

i  ' 

1 

k 

II 

MOUNTAIN  SCENERY 


157 


up  into  a  bold  range,  ridge  above  ridge,  f-  above  the 
timber-line.  Where  the  mountams  -"f  j^"- j'^'^^™ 
ber  as  they  do  here,  their  moss-covered  or  rocky  sum 
S;s    ive  pleasing  variety  to  the  ^^^.^^^H^ ^%'^^: 

,,e  region  one  of  ^r^^;^^^^^^! 
The  snov/  1  neers  on  them  till  laic  in  ju>    , 
Lain  elly  in  September,  ..th  an  added  d^-^y  and 
b  1  iance  of  contrast.    All  the  way  to  the  Melo^.kaket 
th    mountains  beyond  the  right  bank  are  massive  and 
mpoTg  with  great  rounded  shoulders  deeply  sculptured 
Ty'g  mes  and  glens.    Their  highest  domes,  rismg^rom 
three  to  four  thousand  feet  above  the  nver   for  much 
the  Lost  part  virgin  to  the  foot  of  man.  give  the  traveller 
itoZer  climbing  a  desire  to  reach  them  ad  . 

sDlendid  wide  view  which  they  would  afford  On  the 
other  side  of  them  the  Melo.itna  is  hastemng  to  its 
°;„ction   with   the  Yukon,    twenty    or    thirty    miles 

*"' U  was  in  this  fine  region  that  the  writer  witnessed 
the  Irlndest  and  most  memorable  thunder-storm  o  h.s 
Z^.    we  were  iourneying  ^J^^ 

s;ar::;r:f';ii/-nsesuit.hea. 
i^?^iiX^"SL^---H 

now  b  one  blinding  flash  .fter  another,  now  tremulously 


!   J 


,58  THUNDER-STORM  DESCRIBED 

constant  for  several  seconds  at  a  time,  iWu™"-^^8  '^ 
dark,  cavernous  recesses  and  revealmg  the  whole  wde 
river  landscape,  and  shining  so  bnghtly  through  the 
lindows  of  our  ^ngine-room  that  the  pohshea  parts  of 
the  motor  gleamed  in  its  light.  .  T*'-*>-^"  ^f/^ 
and   pealed,  nnd  the  reverberatmg  boom  from  every 
shoulder  and  buttress  had  not  begun  to  grow  famt  ere 
another  crash  and  peal  split  the  air.    Now  the  clouds 
Lemed  to  have  advantage  and  descended  to  envelop 
and  grapple  with  the  peaks,  as  though  to  spUt  and  rend 
them  with   thunderbolts  at   close  quarters;    now  the 
stains  seemed  to  prevail  and  the  clouds  w.thd^w 
awhile  to  reinforce  themselves  for  another  attack_    And 
Z  strange  thing  about  it  was  that  the  atmosphere  of 
the  river  was  wholly  undisturbed  by  the  t.tan.c  conflict 

the  storm  was  confined  to  the  «'°"""'"  J°Pf  .^^It 
egion  of  the  air  they  penetrated.    All  the  br.ef  n.gh 
through,  the  majestic  spectacle  was  mamtained,  as  hour 
after  Lr  we  pushed  on  from  Melozikaket  to  Kokerxnes, 
aSall  night  long,  now  at  the  wheel,  and  now  leanmg 
out  of  a  cabin  window,  I  watched  .t.  entranced.    As  we 
passed  Kokerines  and  the  dawn  appeared  the  conflict 
abated,  but  it  was  not  until  the  thunder-storm  on  the 
n^ountains  was  over  and  the  day  was  come  that  we  ran 
into  violent  wind  and  rain  that  for  a  wh.  e  tossed  the 
launch  about  like  a  cockle-shell.    The  sultry  heat  was 
eone  for  the  summer. 

Thunder-storms  are  not  very  common  on  the  Yukon 
though  when  they  occur  they  are  likely  to  be  v.olent  and 
notable,  but  there  is  no  country  1  have  hved  m  that 


WONDERFUL   RAINBOW 


»S9 


stretches  such  vivid  rainbows  across  its  sicies  as  does 
the  Yukon  country,  and  I  can  say  with  Wordsworth: 

"My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 
A  rainbow  in  the  sky." 

It  was  in  this  same  region  that  I  saw  the  grandest 
rainbow  I  have  ever  seen.  All  day  the  entire  heavens 
had  been  overcast,  with  intermittent  drizzling  rain,  and 
at  eventide  the  heavy  pall  was  suddenly  lifted  at  the 
northwestern  horizon  just  enough  to  let  the  level  rays 
of  the  sun  stream  through.  Instantly  there  sprang  out 
against  the  dense,  dripping  clouds  the  most  superb  and 
startling  display  of  colour  my  eyes  have  ever  witnessed. 
There  were  two  complete,  concentric  bows,  with  a  defi- 
nite outline  of  a  third,  spanning  the  river.  The  inner 
of  the  two  was  brighter,  I  think,  than  any  rainbow  I 
ever  saw  out  of  Alaska,  but  the  outer  one  was  so  daz- 
zlingly  brilliant  that  we  who  saw  it  were  dumb  with 
amazement  and  awe.  Never  before  had  I  seen  the  pris- 
matic colours  so  distinct  from  each  other,  so  sharply 
divided  into  separate  bands;  never  before  such  rich  and 
lustrous  effulgence.  It  was  as  though  some  new  celestial 
sign  had  been  given  the  world;  and  my  thoughts  reverted 
to  the  rainbow  of  the  apocalypse,  encircling  the  Great 
White  Throne,  and  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  it  seemed 
an  appropriate  and  ever  adequate  figure.  Then  in  an 
instant  it  was  gone,  and  the  sun  had  set,  and  the  leaden 
skies  took  a  deeper  sombreness  from  the  recollection  of 
the  pomp  and  splendour  they  had  so  recently  displayed. 
I  will  not  say  that  Claude  or  Turner  could  not  have 


I 


!l 


i6o 


A  SUMMER  AURORA 


rr '     ! 


painted  this  scene,  though  the  palettes  of  Titian  and 
Paul  Veronese  were  more  familiar  with  the  pure,  rich 
tints  that  would  have  been  required;  but  I  am  sure  that 
whoever  had  painted  it  would  have  been  called  extrava- 
gant and  sensational  by  any  one  strange  to  our  skies. 

Yet  another  delightful  recollection  clings  in  my  mind 
about  the  Melozikaket  region,  for  it  was  here  late  one 
August  that  I  saw  the  most  delicately  charming  aurora 
of  my  experience.  Many  people  entertain  the  notion 
that  the  northern  lights  occur  only  in  winter;  but  they 
are  to  be  seen  in  Alaska  as  long  as  there  is  any  darkness 
in  the  spring,  and  again  as  soon  as  darkness  begins  to 
come  in  the  later  summer.  The  visitor  who  lingers  into 
August  or  even  late  July  is  unfortunate  if  he  see  no 
display. 

We  were  coming  up  the  river  again  in  the  launch  one 
perfectly  still  night.  A  crescent  moon  sailed  amidst  a 
cluster  of  stars  in  a  serene  sky.  And  in  and  out,  back 
and  forth,  to  and  fro,  twined  and  twisted  around  moon 
and  stars  with  bewildering  swiftness  and  complexity, 
greenish  filaments  of  auroral  light,  as  though  a  multitude 
of  luminous  serpents  were  attracted  to  the  moon  as 
moths  are  attracted  to  a  candle.  And  moon  and  stars 
and  writhing  filaments  of  light  were  perfectly  reflected 
in  the  swift  yet  placid  water  of  the  river,  so  that  whether 
one  looked  above  or  below  one  saw  them  equally  well.  I 
have  described  in  another  volume  some  of  the  vast  and 
splendid  displays  of  the  northern  lights  I  have  seen  in 
the  winter;  this  summer  aurora  lingers  in  my  mind  with 
a  feeling  of  its  singular  loveliness,  and  as  one  sometimes 


ALASKAN  JOURNALISM  i6i 

gets  more  pleasure  from  a  delicate  water-colour  sketch 
than  from  a  huge  and  imposing  oil-painting,  so  do  I 
recall  this  pretty  little  summer  aurora  that  sportively 
enmeshed  the  si  ver  n^oon  and  the  diamond  stars  in  a 
living  network  of  opalescence  against  the  purple  velvet 
of  the  summer  night,  with  more  joy  than  many  a  more 
majestic  one.  Whistler  could  have  hinted  its  exquisite 
beauty  m  a  "nocturne "-but  if  he  had,  Ruskin  would 
certainly  have  called  him  a  coxcomb  again. 

Although  I  have  not  had  occasion  to  become  as  inti- 
mate  with  this  part  of  the  river  as  with  some  others,  yet 
I  think  the  region  between  Nowikaket  and  Melozikaket 
IS  the  most  attractive  to  me  of  its  whole  course. 

The  clear  brownish  water  of  the  Melozitna,  issuing 
from  a  break  in  the  mountain  range  and  discharging  in 
a  little  delta,  runs  distinct  amidst  the  Yukon's  turbid 
flood  for  some  distance  after  the  Melozikaket  is  passed, 
and  just  below,  on  the  opposite  bank,  finely  situated 
on  rismg  ground  where  the  mountains  make  a  cirque, 
with  a  bold  bluff  at  each  extremity,  lies  Ruby,  the  most 
populous  place  on  the  Alaskan  Yukon  at  the  present 
time,  and  the  only  settlement  of  any  kind,  white  or 
native,  from  Xanana  to  the  mouth,  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  river.  There  used  to  be  a  newspaper  at  Circle,  and 
one  at  Eagle;  within  my  own  time  there  were  newspapers 
at  Rampart  and  Tanana;  but  they  are  long  since  dead, 
and  to-day  Ruby  is  the  only  place  on  the  whole  Ameri- 
can River  where  a  newspaper  is  published-which  is  a 
pretty  sure  gauge  of  populousness. 

Ruby  sprang  up  in  the  early  summer  of  191 1,  as  a 


1.1 


I63  MUSHROOM  GROWTH 

mushroom  springs  up  in  a  night.  I  passed  by  on  the 
winter  trail  in  March  of  that  year,  and  camped  on  the 
bank  almost  opposite  the  place,  and  the  hillside  was 
void  of  any  evidence  of  human  existence.  In  the  follow- 
ing July  I  passed  down  the  river  in  the  Pelican,  and 
the  river-front  was  :warming  with  men,  the  beach  was 
lined  with  boats  of  every  description,  the  hillside  was 
white  with  tents.  News  had  gone  abroad  of  a  rich 
"strike"  on  a  creek  thirty  miles  behind  this  spot,  and, 
so  soon  as  navigation  opened,  a  stampede  from  every 
mining-camp  in  Alaska  had  taken  place.  Before  the 
close  of  navigatioi.  that  year  all  the  canvas  places  of 
business  and  most  of  me  canvas  residences  were  replaced 
by  wooden  structures  and  the  town  had  assumed  almost 
its  present  form. 

The  "strike"  on  Long  Creek  did  not  turn  out  to  be 
so  very  rich,  except  in  spots,  but  a  number  of  smaller 
strikes  were  made  in  the  vicinity,  and  the  camp  has  been 
a  fair  producer  for  the  past  five  or  six  years.  How  long 
it  will  last  no  one  can  say,  but  by  and  by  the  placers  will 
be  gradually  exhausted,  and  since  Ruby  has  no  other 
reason  for  existence  save  as  a  poit  and  mart  for  the 
placer-mines,  it  will  dwindle  with  them. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  there  was  no  law  regulating 
the  building  of  towns  along  the  river  when  Ruby  was 
laid  out.  As  it  was  planned,  the  main  street  faced  the 
river,  with  only  one  side  to  the  street,  and  the  business 
houses  fronted  without  obstruction  upon  the  beach. 
But  the  cupidity  of  late  comers,  with  no  law  to  check 
them,  led  to  the  building  of  another  side  to  the  street. 


l!  lill 


!•:  ,1 1 


!.  k 


THE   RUBY  DISTRICT  ,63 

and  the  back,  of  ,he,e  later  erection,  with  their  out- 
houses and  domestic  offices  now  line  the  wate'fZ 
and  B.ve  a  ,<,..  .lid  aspect  to  the  town  from  the  rim 
.'°:„?  :"'  °^  "'f'-t  '<-  site,  in  Alaska  spoiled  It 
u  unfortunate,  also,  from  the  point  of  fire  protection 
Ruby  has  not  yet  suffered  from  any  serious  fie.  but  the 
hud  I.        ,    ,.,,i„^,  ^„  ^,„^^,^  ^^^^^^^  ^ .  bu     he 

Rubv    h        '  "^r''  ""'  ''''  '  ^"'-»  "-•     From 
Ruby,  by  way  of  Ophir  and  Tacotna,  runs  the  winte^ 

nd  mak  '  Iditarod.  passing  through  'the  Innoko^Ip^ 
and  makmg  connection  with  the  overland  trail  to  An- 
chorage and  Seward  on  the  coast.     Ruby  has  a  resident 
comm.ss.oner  and  deputy  marshal,  and  it  is  on    Tf  hre 
Places  m  the  mterior  where  a  session  of  the  district  court 

bdow  Ruby  keeping  almost  in  one  straight  line  against 
the  mountamous  bluffs  of  the  right  bank,  with  low 
wc^ed  country  on  the  other  shore  all  the  way  ' 

r.th  K  7  ^°""^"'  '°"'''  "  ^*'^"8';  ^he  river  turns 
mher  sharply  to  north  of  the  general  westerly  direcZ 

or  tlnr"/""T^'  """^  '""'"S  ■"""""•"^  behind  it 
for  twenty-five  miles,  enters  a  flat  country  which  is  in 
fact,  the  mouth  of  the  great  valley  of  the  Lyu7uk-t; 


y 


t    V  ! : 


,64  A  MEMORIAL  CROSS 

Koyukuk  Flats.  And  as  the  Nowikaket-Melozikaket 
stretch  has  been  described  as  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
on  the  whole  river,  so  this  stretch  through  the  Koyukuk 
Flats  is  one  of  the  least  attractive.  It  has  all  the  monot- 
ony of  the  Great  Flats  above,  without  the  appeal  of  their 
spaciousness,  without  the  interest  (to  most  visitors)  o 
their  penetration  beyond  the  limits  of  the  geographical 

frigid  zone. 

Ten  or  twelve  miles  above  the  Koyukuk  mouth,  on 
the  right  bank,  stands  a  bold,  solitary  mountainous  bluff, 
against  the  base  of  which  the  current  runs  very  heavily, 
and  near  the  summit  of  which  an  iron  cross  has  been 
erected     In  this  neighbourhood  occurred  the  murder  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop  Seagher  of  Oregon,  in 
1885   by  a  half-breed  attendant,  when  engaged  upon  a 
missionary  prospecting  journey  in  the  winter.    The  crim- 
inal was  tried  and  convicted  at  Sitka,  but  there  seems 
to  have  been  absence  of  adequate  motive  and  doubt 
about  his  sanity;  he  was  imprisoned  for  life,  but,  I  am 
told,  subsequently  released.    The  memorial  cross  was 
erected  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers  of  Nulato,  and  the  bluff, 
known  as  the  Bishop  Mountain,  is  the  most  promment 
landmark  hereabout.  ,  ,    „  , 

We  now  approach  the  confluence  of  the  Yukon  on  its 
right  bank  with  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  its 
tributaries,  the  Koyukuk,  the  last  great  affluent  which 
it  receives.  By  a  number  of  sloughs  and  intricate  chan- 
nels the  waters  of  the  Koyukuk  find  their  way  into  the 
Yukon,  but  the  main  stream  of  the  Yukon  keeps  to  the 
opposite  shore,  and  to  reach  the  settlement  at  the  well- 


A  MIGHTY  TRIBUTARY  ,65 

defined  principal  mouth  of  the  Koyulculc  it  is  necessary 
to  go  down  below  it,  cross  the  river,  and  turn  up  around 
a  sand-bar,  except  at  high  stages  of  water.  Two  lofty 
niountain  bluffs  of  peculiar  shape  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Yukon  and  the  west  side  of  the  Koyukuk  are  land- 
marks of  the  confluence. 

This  great  river,  navigable  for  light-draught  steam- 
boats between  five  and  six  hundred  miles,*  with  an  im- 
portant gold-mining  camp  seventy  miles  above  the  head 
of  Its  steamboat  navigation,  deserves  and  will  receive  a 
chapter  to  itself,  but  the  magnitude  of  its  drainage  basin 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  its  headwater  tribu- 
tanes  mterlock  on  the  east  with  the  tributaries  of  the 
Chandalar,  which  enters  the  Yukon  about  thirty  miles 
below  Fort  Yukon;  on  the  west  with  those  of  the  Kobuk 
and  the  Noatak,  which  empty  into  Kotzebue  Sound,  and 
on  the  north  with  those  of  the  Colville,  which  empties 
mto  the  northern  ocean. 

Besides  the  native  village,  the  settlement  at  the  mouth 
contams  a  trading-post  and  a  telegraph-station,  but  the 
place  IS  of  slight  importance,  since  the  port  of  the  Koyu- 
kuk IS  Nulato,  twenty  miles  below.  The  twenty  miles- 
journey  IS  all  along  the  right  bank,  which  during  the 
salmon  run  is  usually  lined  with  fish-wheels  at  short  in- 
tervals. I  once  counted  fifty  wheels  within  this  distance 
Historically  considered,  Nulato  is  the  most  important 
point  on  the  Yukon  River.    It  is  the  site  of  the  first  set- 

.1  J°"°  °if  °"'.''^f««8i<>"s  blunders  is  to  put  the  length  of  this  river  "in 


i 


i66  THE  NULATO  MASSACRE 

tlement  made  on  the  river  by  white  men,  for  in  1838  the 
half-breed  Malakoff,  in  the  employ  of  the  Russian  Fur 
Company,  ascended  hither  from  St.  Michael  and  built 
a  fort  and  a  trading-post.     This,  however,  was  destroyed 
by  the  Indians,  was  again  built  and  destroyed,  and  it 
was  not  until  1841  that  Derabin,  another  agent  of  the 
Russian   Fur   Company,   established   the   place   perma- 
nently and  remained  in  command  until  he  was  killed  in 
the  notorious  Nulato  massacre  of  185 1.     Dall,  who  win- 
tered there  sixteen  years  later,  gives  a  very  circumstan- 
tial account  of  the  affair,  which  received  prominence, 
not  only  on  account  of  the  number  of  lives  sacrificed, 
but  on  account  of  the  inclusion  among  the  victims  of 
Lieutenant  J.  J.  Barnard,  of  the  British  ship  Enterprise, 
engaged  in  the  search  for  Sir  John  Franklin.     He  had 
been  detached  by  Collinson  at  St.  Michael  to  proceed  to 
the  Koyukuk  River  and  inquire  amongst  the   Indians 
whether  anything  had  been  heard  of  shipwrecked  white 
men  making  their  way  overland  from  the  arctic  coast, 
and  although  a  message  sent  by  him  to  the  chief  of  the 
Koyukuk  Indians  that  gave  umbrage  to  that  important 
personage  is  commonly  considered  as  the  cause  of  the 
massacre,  yet  in  all  probability  Barnard  and  his  message 
had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  he  met  his  fate  merely  be- 
cause he  was  accidentally  present  at  the  time.    The  unfor- 
tunate Russian  who  brought  the  message  from  Nulato 
was  murdered,  killed,  and  eaten  (so  the  story  runs);  the 
only  case  of  deliberate  cannibalism  as  against  the  canni- 
balism of  starvation  I  have  ever  heard  charged  against 
the  natives  of  the  interior.    A  band  of  Koyukuk  Indians 


At   tiei     siti:   ,,|     TMI     \||,,t,i    Miksvik,,;   ,,f    ,S;,. 


If 


CAUSE  OF  THE  UPRISING 


167 


came  down  in  the  night  to  Nulato  and  a  clean  sweep  was 
made  of  the  Nulato  Indians;  three  large  houses,  contain- 
ing a  hundred  sleeping  men,  women,  and  children  were 
burned  down,  and  those  who  sought  to  escape  were  shot 
with  arrows  as  they  emerged  from  the  flames.  Then  the 
fort  was  attacked  and  the  factor,  Derabin,  Barnard — 
who  was  his  guest — the  interpreter,  three  children,  and 
their  mother  were  all  slaughtered. 

How  much  of  this  savage  butchery  was  due  to  the 
oppression  of  th^  Russians  and  their  brutal  treatment  of 
the  Indians,— of  which  Dall  was  witness  when  he  win- 
tered there; — how  much  of  it  to  the  rival  pretensions  of 
Koyui(uk  and  Nulato  shamans,  or  medicine-men,  which 
the  Jesuit  fathers,  who  knew  some  of  the  participants, 
in  their  old  age  and  piety, — incline  to  regard  as  the  chief 
cause;— or  if  Barnard's  message  were  aught  else  than  a 
spark  that  fired  long-accumulated  combustibles,  will 
never  be  definitely  known. 

Barnard's  grave  is  still  kept  neatly  by  the  Jesuits, 
and  a  long  Latin  inscription  has  replaced  the  brief  Eng- 
lish one  written  by  the  ship's  doctor  who  had  accom- 
panied him,  but  was  fortunately  absent  that  fatal  night. 
One  would  think,  however,  that  the  British  admiralty 
would  mark  the  spot  with  a  permanent  stone  and  an 
iron  fence,  for  Barnard  died  in  the  execution  of  his 
duty. 

Cf  late  the  river-bank  of  the  scene  of  the  massacre, 
which  is  about  a  mile  below  the  site  of  the  present  town, 
has  been  cut  by  erosion  of  the  current,  and  many  skulls 
and  bones  and  copper  household  utensils  and  beads  and 


i68 


BAD  INDIANS 


ii  ' 


buttons  have  been  uncovered  from  amongst  rotting, 
charred  timbers,  and  carried  oflf  by  "souvenir"  hunters. 
I,  myself,  though  not  of  that  great  company,  dug  out  of 
the  banic  with  a  stick  a  brass  button  bearing  the  imperial 
Russian  double  eagle — evidently  from  a  uniform  coat — 
and  was  interested  to  see,  with  a  magnifying  glass,  on 
the  back  of  it  the  word  "Birmingham,"  and  I  won- 
dered if  official  brass  buttons  are  still  imported  into 
Russia. 

The  natives  of  the  lower  Koyukuk  have  always  borne 
a  bad  reputation,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  good  char- 
acter of  Alaskan  Indians  in  general,  and  the  recent  (1915) 
trial  of  one  of  them  on  the  charge  of  murdering  a  white 
man  a  number  of  years  ago  for  the  sake  of  his  outfit  of 
grub,  while  it  failed  for  lack  of  legal  evidence,  left  an 
impression  upon  many  who  were  present  that  the  crime 
had  been  committed. 

Dall  says  that  for  years  before  his  time  the  Koyukuk 
Indians  had  obtain'ed  intoxicating  liquor  from  traders  who 
visited  Kotzebue  Sound  (eight  hundred  miles  away  by 
rivers  and  portage)  and  thinks  that  "this  circumstance 
had  done  much  to  render  the  tribe,  naturally  cruel  and 
turbulent,  one  of  the  worst  in  the  territory";  but  this 
explanation  (like  the  liquor)  is  far-fetched,  though,  of 
course,  Dall  did  not  know  how  far-fetched,  for  he  thought 
the  Koyukuk  but  an  hundred  miles  long. 

Whatever  the  cause,  the  Indians  of  the  lower  Koyu- 
kuk have  always  borne  a  bad  name.  The  tribe  has 
dwindled  to  a  handful  at  the  Koyukuk  mouth,  and  they 
bear  a  bad  name  to-day.    Little  has  been  done  for  them; 


NULATO  STATISTICS 


169 


even  the  government  school,  maintained  for  a  few  years, 
has  been  abandoned  since  the  accidental  burning  of  the 
schoolhouse.  They  are  attached  nominally  to  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  mission  at  Nulato  and  are  visited  occasion- 
ally by  a  priest. 

Nulato  itself  boasts  a  couple  of  stores,  a  resident  com- 
missioner and  deputy  marshal,  an  elaborate  radio-tele- 
graph station,  a  considerable  mission  establishment,  and 
a.  very  picturesque  burial-place,  perched  on  the  peak  of 
a  rocky  bluff,  bright  with  gaily  painted  graves  and  flut- 
tering pennons.    There  is  also  a  resident  physician  in 
the  employ  of  the  Bureau  of  Education,  who  has  con- 
verted a  building  intended  for  a  school  into  a  little 
native  hospital  of  half  a  dozen  beds,  and  this  physician 
and  his  hospital,  and  a  like  establishment  at  Mountain 
Village  near  the  mouth,  represent  all  that  the  United 
States  Government  is  doing  to-day  for  the  health  of  the 
natives  of  the  whole  Yukon  River,  save  that  a  few  drugs 
are  intrusted  to  the  custody  of  the  teachers  at  govern- 
ment schools.    It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Bureau  of  Edu- 
cation that  this  is  the  case.    Year  by  year  for  many 
years  past  the  Bureau  has  asked  Congress  for  additional 
appropriations  that  would  permit  some  general  efforts 
for  the  prevention  and  cure  of  disease,  and,  year  by 
year,  these  additional  appropriations  are  denied. 

Travellers  on  their  way  to  the  Koyukuk  diggings  are 
transferred  here  to  light-draught  steamboats  that  make 
the  trip  to  Battles  three  or  four  times  during  the  sum- 
mer, and  since  there  is  no  regular  schedule  of  sailings 
they  often  have  ample  time  to  acquaint  themselves  with 


m 


imt 


I  !* 


170 


SLOW  TRAVELLING 


whatever  of  interest  Nulato  affords,  to  investigate  its 
industries  and  reflect  upon  its  history. 

Like  Tanana,  Nulato  has  no  tributary  gold-mining; 
its  commercial  importance  that  is  not  dependent  upon 
native  trade  is  due  to  its  position  as  port  for  the  Koyukuk. 


CHAPTER  VI 

KALTAG,  ANVIK,  HOLY  CROSS,  THE  PIMUTE  PORTAGE 
MARSHALL 

The  next  stage  of  the  river  journey  is  the  forty  miles 
from  Nulato  to  Kaltag,  again  almost  wholly  along  the 
right  bank  with  continuous  mountain  bluffs  all  the  way, 
and  low,  densely  forested  land  to  the  left,  and  little  to 
demand  description  or  comment.  About  midway  is  an 
old  coal-mine,  from  the  de^-rted  shafts  of  which  the 
steamboats  sometimes  procure  ice  in  the  height  of  sum- 
mer if  their  supply  falls  short. 

Almost  anywhere  below  Tanana  the  traveller  voyag- 
ing down-stream  may  pass  a  steamboat  with  a  tow  of 
two  or  three  barges,  slowly  forging  against  the  current, 
pushing  fifteen  hundred  tons  of  food  and  machinery  and 
general  merchandise  ahead  of  it;  for  so  the  interior  of 
Alaska  is  supplied.  One  of  the  barges  will  perhaps  be 
left  at  Ntilato,  and  a  lighter-draught  boat  will  pick  it  up 
by  and  by  and  push  it  ahead  to  Settles  at  the  head  of 
Koyukuk  navigation.  Another  will  be  dropped  at  Ta- 
nana for  the  light-draught  Tanana  steamboats  to  take 
in  tow,  and  another  for  the  boats  that  ply  the  upper 
river,  or  it  may  be  that  one  will  be  left  at  Ruby  to  un- 
load at  leisure  while  the  steamboat  proceeds  to  Tanana 
and  picks  up  the  empty  barge  on  its  return.  The  fine 
"packets"    and    the   powerful    freight-boats    rarely   go 


; 


ill 


* 


rr  I  '  ti<:! 


1^1 


172 


THE   KALTAG  PORTAGE 


above  Tanana  nowadays,  though  when  they  were  put 
on  the  river  their  run  was  the  full  sixteen  hundred  miles 
to  Dawson.  Year  by  year  for  ten  years  past  the  river 
tonnage  has  steadily  declined,  until  the  season  of  1916, 
when  material  and  supplies  for  the  construction  of  the 
government  railroad  from  the  Nenana  base  gave  a  fillip 
to  freights. 

Kaltag  is  chiefly  notable  for  the  easy  passage  to  salt 
water  which  it  affords,  for  the  Yukon  here  approaches 
Norton  Sound  so  closely  that  in  ninety  miles'  walking 
one  may  reach  UnalakUk.  Unalaklik  is  about  sixty 
miles  from  St.  Michael,  so  that  within  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  one  may  reach  St.  Michael  from  Kaltag,  in- 
stead of  the  five  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  which  is 
required  by  the  river  journey.  But  the  portage  is,  of 
course,  only  available  with  any  facility  in  the  winter, 
and  it  is  this  route  which  the  mails  for  St.  Michael  and 
Nome  take  at  that  season. 

The  military  telegraph-line  which  used  to  come  all  the 
way  down  the  river  from  Tanana,  cross  the  portage,  and 
follow  the  coast  to  St.  Michael,  now  ends  at  Nulato,  and 
the  radio  stations  at  that  place,  at  Kaltag,  and  at  St. 
Michael,  flash  their  messages  through  the  air  without 
the  aid  of  wires.  he  operator's  cabin  at  Old  Woman 
Mountain  was  the  half-way  stopping-place  on  the  jour- 
ney to  Unalaklik,  and  here  again,  while  the  signal-corps 
men  are  relieved  of  a  very  lonely  exile,  the  portage  trail 
must  be  left  still  lonelier  for  the  withdrawal. 

Gradually  the  radio  stations  are  superseding  the  land 
wires  throughout  the  interior  of  Alaska.    The  land  wires 


ADVANTAGE  OF  WIRELESS  ,73 

were  expensive  and  laborious  to  maintain.  Passing,  as 
they  did  in  the  main,  through  densely  forested  country 
every  high  wind  and  storm  endangered  them;  in  the 
winter,  especially,  the  tasic  of  repairing  the  lines  and 
keeping  them  continually  open  was  sometimes  one  of 
great  severity,  and  the  infantrymen,  attached  to  each 
station  for  this  purpose,  often  suffered  from  exposure  to 
the  extreme  cold.  Moreover,  despite  their  utmost  ef- 
forts,  communications  were  frequently  interrupted 

The  "wireless"  has,  of  course,  troubles  of  its  own 
I  he  despatch  of  messages  is  much  slower  than  with  the 
land  Imes,  and  the  receipt  of  them  is  sometimes  greatly 
hindered,  or  even  for  a  while  entirely  prevented,  by  cer- 
tain  atmospheric,  or  perhaps  it  were  more  proper  to  say 
ethereal,  conditions,  that  are  very  obscure.  But  in  a 
country  like  the  interior  of  Alaska,  where  the  total  num- 
ber  of  messages  sent  is  comparatively  small,  the  'an- 
tages  of  the  wireless  stations  are  so  great  that  it  c  n  be 
only  a  question  of  time  when  the  land  wires  wUI  be 
abandoned  altogether. 

There  now  lies  before  us  the  longest  stretch  of  the 
whole  Yukon  on  which  there  is  no  sort  of  settlement 
important  enough  to  find  place  upon  a  map-the  hun- 
dred  and  suty  miles  or  so  between  Kaltag  and  .invik 
By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  steamboat  course  lies  close 
agamst  the  right  b:  nk,  with  mountains  coming  to  the 
water's  edge  or  never  far  from  it,  all  the  way.  To  the 
left  IS  low-timbered  country  with  a  distant  range-the 
Kaiyuh  Mountains-visible  beyond,  and  behind  that 
range  the  Innoko  River  is  flowing  to  its  junction  with 


'11 


>)',  I 


174 


CLIMATIC  DEIAILS 


the  Yukon  in  the  Chageluk  Slough;  beyond  that  again, 
a  wide,  mountainous  region  intervening,  the  Kutkokwim 
has  united  its  forks  and  will  soon  begin  to  approach  the 
Yukon.  Through  the  tow-timbered  land  on  the  left 
bank  one  of  the  curious  detached  channels  of  the  Yukon 
flows,  called  the  Kaiyuh  Slough,  leaving  the  river  about 
ten  miles  above  Kaltag  and  returning  to  it  about  ten 
miles  below,  and  receiving  a  small  tributary  named  the 
Khotol. 

From  the  mouth  of  the  Koyukuk  all  down  this 
stretch  of  the  river,  and  still  farther,  to  the  Russian 
Mission,  the  traveller  is  going  steadily  to  the  south. 
The  influence  of  the  lowered  latitude,  while  it  is  not 
apparent  at  a  glance,  is  none  the  less  felt.  I  have  found 
ferns  amidst  the  rocky  gullies  of  this  shore,  and  in  the 
depths  of  the  woods  a  little  way  from  the  shore,  that  I 
have  never  seen  higher  up  the  river.  The  extreme  cold 
of  Fort  Yukon  and  Tanana  is  much  rarer  here;  the  mean 
temperatures  are  higher;  the  climate  has  grown  slightly 
and  insensibly  milder,  and  I  am  sure  it  has  grown  more 
humid.  The  general  character  of  the  vegetation  is  the 
same;  spruce  of  two  varieties,  cottonwood,  birch,  and 
willow,  are  still  almost  the  only  trees. 

Here  and  there  a  native  fish  camp,  here  and  there  a 
white  man's  fish  camp,  dot  the  shore  at  wide  intervals; 
here  and  there  a  pile  of  cord-wood  awaits  a  steamboat. 
The  fish-wheels  creak  and  groan  as  they  revolve  in  the 
current,  and  if  a  "run"  be  on,  the  traveller  may  see 
silver  salmon  or  dog  salmon  floundering  and  flapping  in 
the  "buckets"  or  sliding  down  the  chutes  into  the  box 


I'i 


•  ;  i 


1     I 


'M 


'p^' 


PICTURESQUE  ANVIK  ,75 

travellers  mmd.  It  .s  eighty  years  since  white  men 
began  to  „se  this  river;  it  is  fifty  years  since  it  came  Zl 
the  possess.on  of  the  United  States;  yet  here,  in  the 
ne.ghbourhood  of  the  earliest  settlement,  is  naught  bu 
he  unpeopled  wilderness.  The  natives  of  these  pan 
have  unquesfonably  greatly  diminished;  a  mere  handful 
of  whue  men  have  come  in  their  place.  I  doubt  if  there 
be  a  dozen  m  th.s  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles;  I  can 
count  no  more  than  half  that  number 

Forty  miles  above  Anvik,  with  the  channel  on  one  of 

ZZ"  "'"r."  '"  '•'^  ''''  ''^"'''  »•>«  -'"askable  de- 
eaves  th?  ""^  '^""^  ''  '""^  ^•'^S^'"''  Slough 

kaves  the  mam  stream  to  meander  one  hundred  and 

sTvSi"  T  ir'  "^""  '"  '"^  ^"''°"  -  Koseref- 
S^k"^  "  ""i'"^  '^"""''  '■•=^"^'"8  *he  considerable 
Innoko  R.ver  m  .ts  course;  a  duplication  on  a  much 
arger  scale  of  the  Kaiyuh  Slough  near  Kaltag.  But  the 
Innoko  and  .ts  tributary,  the  Iditarod,  will  feceive  spe^ 
c^I  attention  elsewhere,  in  which  place  it  will  be  more 

Anvik  is  perhaps  more  picturesquely  situated  than 

Tstrl"  IT""'"'  °"  '''  ^"''°"-    ^^«  ^-'^  ^". 
a  stream  of  dear  water,  comes  in  on  the  right  bank,  and 

about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  the  confluence,  on  the 

nght  bank  of  the  Anvik,  the  mission  building   Z   h 

Episcopal  Church  nestle  against  a  steep,  wooded  ridge 

and  look  out  across  the  narrow  strip  of  lowland  covered 


k 


176 


WORK  OF  A  MISSIONARY 


«l    I 


3~  ,      I ' 


with  fishing  camps  that  makes  the  other  bank  of  the 
Anvik  River,  to  a  wide  and  beautiful  up-stream  prospect 
of  the  Yukon  and  its  distant,  diminishing  bluffs. 

Thirty-one  years  ago  a  mission  work  was  undertaken 
at  this  place.    Thirty  years  ago  the  Reverend  Doctor 
John  W.  Chapman  arrived  to  conduct  it,  and  it  has  been 
in  his  charge  ever  since.    The  early  accounts  of  the  place 
agree  in  speaking  of  its  inhabitants  as  amongst  the  most 
degraded  on  the  Yukon  River.    We  are  fortunate  m 
having  an  indifferent  account  contemporary  with  the 
beginning  of  Doctor  Chapman's  work,  by  the  first  mem- 
ber of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  who  came 
down  the  Yukon.    He  describes  the  Anvik  natives  in 
1887  as  living  in  underground  huts,  the  place  reeking 
with  filth  and  intolerable  stench,  the  greater  part  of  the 
people  seemingly  diseased,  and  presenting  on  the  whole 
the  most  miserable  and  wretched  appearance  of  any 
human  beings  he  had  ever  seen. 

He  goes  on  to  say  somewhat  petulantly  that  if  the 
young  clergyman  he  saw  there  would  take  off  his  coat 
and  start  cleaning  up,  it  would  be  better  than  walking 
the  beach  in  his  clerical  clothes.  I  cannot  put  my  hand 
on  the  report  to  give  the  name  and  the  exact  words  of 
the  writer,  but  this  is  the  substance  of  it  as  I  well  remem- 
ber. Doctor  Chapman  had  just  then  arrived,  though 
the  geologist  did  not  know  that;  if  he  had  returned  to 
Anvik  any  time  these  twenty  years  past  he  would  have 
been  compelled  to  admit  that  Doctor  Chapman  had 
taken  off  his  coat  to  some  purpose. 

For    there    has    been    marked    improvement.    The 


;>>•  «  >^':'.)f^ 


■1  \: 

I 
I 


1 


?■  .1 


h 


M  11 


ESKIMO  SUPERIORITY 


177 


underground  houses  are  long  since  gone;  the  people  are 
well  sheltered  in  cabins  with  little  garden-plots  around 
them,  and  are  comparatively  healthy;  a  school  has  been 
maintained  from  the  first  and  there  are  some  twenty 
boarding  pupils  from  the  Chageluk  Slough  and  from  up 
the  river. 

Like  the  long,  scarcely  inhabited  stretch  from  Fort 
Yukon  to  Stephen's  Village,  the  long  stretch  of  the  river 
just  passed  over  brings  change  in  the  native  people  and 
the  native  language.  The  Anvik  River  has  its  lower 
course  parallel  with  the  Yukon;  but  it  heads  in  the 
mountains  near  the  shore  of  Norton  Sound  and  its  trib- 
utaries interlock  with  the  tributaries  of  the  Unalaklik 
River.  It  has  thus  always  afforded  easy  communication 
with  the  Eskimos,  and  in  Dall's  day,  and  one_  knows 
not  how  much  earlier,  the  hardier  and  more  virile  and 
better-armed  Eskimos  dominated  these  particular  river 
people.  Moreover,  the  Eskimos  of  the  wide  delta 
country  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  have  extended  their 
influence  and  their  blood  thus  far  up.  Though  in  the 
main  Indian,  the  Anvik  people  are  a  mixed  people,  and, 
certainly  at  first  sight,  give  one  the  impression  that  they 
have  inherited  a  double  portion  of  the  phlegm  of  both 
races.  The  visitor  is  likely  to  find  them  taciturn  and 
unresponsive,  not  to  say  morose,  beyond  the  inhabitants 
of  the  upper  reaches  of  the  river. 

The  mixture  of  blood  and  the  modification  of  lan- 
guage and  custom  are  not  the  only  matters  that  differ- 
entiate these  people  from  those  who  inhabit  the  upper 
regions  of  the  river     We  are  out  of  the  common  range 


I      ; 


I-    Wi 


Ni 


!h 


178 


EFFECT  OF  FISH  DIET 


of  the  big  game  here;  moose  and  caribou  are  rare,  and 
the  mountain-sheep  is  unknown.  We  are  come  to  the 
ichthyophagi,  whose  steady  diet  of  fish  is  varied  by  little 
else  than  the  spring  and  autumn  water-fowl.  Rabbits 
and  squirrels  and  some  small  deer,  and  berries,  and  the 
produce  of  their  little  garden-plots  enter  into  their  diet 
to  some  extent,  but  in  the  main  they  are  fish-eaters; 
and  such  are  all  the  remaining  natives  of  the  Yukon 
down  to  the  sea. 

Now,  it  has  been  observed  by  travellers  for  centuries 
and  in  many  parts  of  the  world  that  an  exclusive  or 
largely  preponderating  diet  of  fish  does  not  tend  to  the 
upbuilding  of  stamina,  and  there  seems  ample  ground 
to  believe  that  a  more  vigorous  constitution,  a  more  san- 
guine temper,  and  a  more  vivacious  and  enterprising 
disposition  may  be  looked  for  amongst  those  whose  diet 
includes  flesh  to  a  considerable  extent.     How  much  of 
this  difference  is  due  to  purely  dietetic  considerations 
and  how  much  to  the  habits  of  activity,  agility,  and  vigi- 
lance fostered  by  the  chase,  as  against  the  sedentary  life 
of  the  fisherman,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  but  I  never 
pass  down  from  the  Indians  of  the  upper  and  middle 
river  to  those  of  the  lower  river  without  feeling  sure  that 
I  can  observe  this  marked  division  between  the  fish- 
eaters  and  the  flesh-eaters. 

These  considerations  render  the  Indian  or  mixed  In- 
dian and  Eskimo  of  the  lower  Yukon  much  more  diffi- 
cult subjects  than  their  kin  of  other  parts  for  missionary 
work,  using  that  term  in  the  way  I  always  use  it,  as  in- 
cluding all  practicable  improvement  in  habits  and  char- 


THE  FISH  HARVEST  ,79 

acter  and  mode  of  life.    They  are  exceedingly  tena- 

But  if  A      IT,  'J'"^  ^""  °^  ^°"^'""°-  'aching. 

ful  h,  '''''  '"^  ^'""^  "'^  '^"''>  -•>«  -  wondef. 

ful  harvest  u  secures  from  the  water !    I  have  seen  "the 

oa""tt":he  M^r""  '"  "^"^  P'^"^'  ^'^  '"«  Alaskan 
coast  to  the  Mediterranean,  but  I  had  to  go  to  Anvil;  to 

understand  the  abundance  of  the  river.    Fish-wheel   are 
no.  much  m  use  in  these  parts,  because  they  at  n; 
needed.    Durmg  a  run  of  salmon  the  nets  and  traps  are 
no  s^ner  set  out  than  they  are  full  and  running  over 
and  often  have  to  be  taken  up  altogether  until  the  cut- 
sTnnlv     T     ,""'  ""  "''''  "P  ""''  '•''  overwhelming 
mouth  of  the  r,ver,  when  they  reach  the  place  the  fish 
are  not  exhausted  and  gaunt  by  long,  fastfng  trav  1     s 
they  are  at  Fort  Yukon  and  even  begin  to  be  at  Tala 
in^r^r  '-''  ''-  —^-a-Ha.r  years.  so^Tn' 

tragic  than  this  migration  of  the  salmon  ?    After  thirtv 
known  of  them,  back  to  the  very  spot  where  they  were 

llZ'^ri  '  '"^''"'°"'  '"'''""  '^"^"  'hese  fish;  and  to 
reach  that  spot  may  involve  a  journey  of  fifteen  hundred 
mdes  up  the  muddy  Yukon,  and  its  tributary,  and  S 
tributary's  tributary,  until  at  last  the  clear  streT;  or  lake 
.s  reached  where  they  were  born;  and  during  the  wh  e  o 
that  journey  nothing  is  eaten.    I  have  asked  many  fisher- 


Ml 
'I 


i8o 


FISH  MIGRATION 


I 


men,  white  and  native,  in  many  diflferent  parts  of  the  Yu- 
kon, whether  they  ever  found  anything  in  the  stomach  of 
a  salmon,  and  the  answer  was  always  in  the  negative,  and 
that  is  the  universal  testimony  on  the  other  rivers  used 
by  this  fish.  Of  the  comparative  few  that  reach  their 
destination  and  perform  the  act  of  reproduction  which 
is  the  object  of  the  journey,  the  great  majority  die  very 
shortly  thereafter.  The  circle  of  their  lives  is  complete 
when  they  have  reached  the  waters  which  gave  them 
life  and  have  transmitted  that  life  to  others. 

Consider,  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  mechanical 
problem,  the  prodigious  exertion  of  power  involved  in 
the  journey  of  fifteen  hundred  miles— and  this  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  extreme  distance  travelled— through  icy 
water,  against  a  swift  current,  without  any  reinforcement 
of  strength  from  food.  What  dynamic  reservoirs  the 
bodies  of  these  fish  must  be,  and  what  an  economical 
expenditure  thereof  the  fish's  characteristic  mode  of  pro- 
pulsion must  be,  as  compared,  let  us  say,  with  a  screw- 
propeller.  As  man  has  learned  of  the  birds  in  his  cleav- 
ing of  the  air,  may  there  not  yet  be  something  to  learn 
from  the  fish  in  the  matter  of  progress  through  the 
water  ? 

Consider,  again,  the  astonishing  faculty  that  enables 
this  fish  to  return  lo  its  individual  spawning-ground. 
The  Yukon  is  so  muddy  and  clouded  that  the  fish  can- 
not see,  and  therefore  cannot  avoid,  the  sweeping  arm 
of  the  fish-wheel  that  scoops  them  up  if  they  come  within 
its  range— for  fish-wheels  are  useless  in  clear  water— and 
yet  they  can  determine  precisely  the  spot  at  which  to 


'  1 


I  il, 


I'  I 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  INSTINCT 


i8i 


leave  the  broad  river,  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left,  can 
tell  what  tributary  to  ascend  and  just  where  its  conflu- 
ence is.    Only  once  before  has  the  fish  been  in  this  river, 
and  that  was  when,  a  fingerling  of  two  or  three  inches  in 
length,  it  made  its  rapid  journey  down  to  the  sea.     It 
seems  idle  to  talii  of  memory.    What  man,  issuing  out 
of  a  lake  that  feeds  a  brook  that  falls  into  a  creek  that 
discharges  into  a  tributary  ol  a  tributary  of  the  Yukon, 
and,  passing  once  many  hundreds  of  miles  down  these 
waterways  to  the  sea,  in  daylight,  with  all  sorts  of  land- 
marks to  aid  him,  could  undertake  to  return  to  the  spot 
whence  he  came  two  years  and  a  half  later  ?    But  after 
the  salmon  enters  the  Yukon  from  salt  water  it  can  see 
nothing;  then  what  wonderful  power  of  water-analysis 
must  this  creature  have  to  determine  the  peculiar  char- 
acteristic of  each  stream  he  passes  by  until  the  one  is 
encountered  that  carries  his  native  water!    What  infi- 
nitely delicate  faculty  of  taste  or  feeling !    Indeed,  the 
more  we  try  to  reduce  the  thing  to  intelligible  terms  the 
more  incomprehensible  it  becomes.    We  cannot  explain 
it;  the  childish  explanation  of  the  medicine-man  is  as 
valid  as  any  attempted  explanation  of  science;  to  talk 
about  "irresistible  instinct"  and  "imperious  demands  of 
nature  for  the  propagation  of  the  species  in  a  favourable 
environment"  does  not  explain  it  at  all;  it  is  like  explain- 
ing the  mystery  of  the  firefly  by  stating  that  it  has  "  a 
photogenic  apparatus  in  its  abdomen" — of  course  it  has 
—the  Cuban  girl  who  pins  it  in  her  hair  knows  that.     It 
is  time  that  intelligent  people  emancipated  themselves 
from  the  superstition  that  to  speak  about  things  in  long 


I82 


VARIETIES  OF  SALMON 


words  it  to  explain  them.  We  cannot  explain  the  won 
ders  of  the  spawning  migration  of  the  salmon;  we  only 
know  from  accumulated  evidence  that  they  are  bo.  In 
other  streams  of  the  Pacific  coast,  frequented  by  the 
same  species,  careful  and  long-continued  observations 
have  established  the  facts  with  certainty. 

Although  not  so  completely  dependent  upon  the 
salmon  as  the  natives  of  the  lower  river,  the  upper-river 
people  also  would  be  at  sore  loss  without  it.  The  chase 
is  more  or  less  precarious  everywhere;  the  harvest  of  the 
water  is  sure.  Dried  and  smoked,  the  fish  are  stored  up 
for  the  winter,  and  furnish  a  large  part  of  the  subsistence 
of  man  and  dog.  In  some  seasons  the  catch  is  plentiful 
and  in  others  it  is  scant,  but  it  never  fails  altogether. 

Here  at  Anvik,  however,  it  is  always  plentiful.  The 
flat  camping-ground  of  the  peninsula  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Anvik  River  begins  to  bloom  with  great  racks  of  red  fish 
early  in  the  season,  and  before  long,  acres  and  acres  are 
covered  with  them.  What  tens  of  thousands  of  fish  may 
be  caught  the  summer  through  I  know  not,  but  the  num- 
ber is  immense.  The  very  profusion  of  the  fish  induces 
carelessness  in  the  curing,  and  Anvik  fish  has  a  name  for 
being  insufficiently  cleaned  and  smoked. 

First  comes  the  king-salmon,  and  the  capture  of  the 
first  fish  of  this  largest  and  finest  species  is  a  notable 
occurrence  anywhere  on  the  river,  and  marks  the  open- 
ing of  the  season.  Who  does  not  relish  the  first  steak 
from  a  fine  king-salmon?  Two  lean  months  have 
passed,  with  no  mitigation  of  canned  and  dried  food, 
save  an  occasional  duck  or  goose.    But  very  soon  one 


THE  FISHING  SEASON 


183 


grow,  satiated;  the  king-ialmon  is  too  fat.  too  rich,  too 
highly  flavoured  for  a  steady  diet,  and  unless  there  be 
naught  else  one  turns  from  it.  Presently  the  silver 
salmon  comes,  more  delicate  and  less  oily;  then  comes 
the  great  run  of  dog-salmon,  and  lastly,  late  in  the 
season,  a  run  of  "chinook"  saln.(.n,  l.v  .nun>  preferred 
m  flavour  to  all  the  other  kind- 

The  fish  camp  at  Anvik,  Airh  ;r,  n,a„y  f^n,  j,j 
smouldering  fires  and  its  sw  .rmu.;.  p;  ti\  ■.■  j.o.pk  and 
dogs,  is  a  picturesque  sight,  but  Ilk,;  m  ,nv  another  pic- 
turesque  sight  it  is  more  agreeabl.  whe,.  vicved  from  a 
distance  than  when  inspected  at  clos  •  i:ii,.iter,s.  it  reeks 
of  fish  and  smoke,  and  the  clear  water  of  the  little  river, 
almost  stagnant  at  the  point  of  confluence,  is  fetid  with 
offal.  Moreover,  the  flies  and  mosquitoes  are  intoler- 
ably numerous  the  summer  thtoj<?h;  it  is  not  safe  to  go 
ashore  anywhere  in  this  region  without  veil  and  gloves. 
Mosquitoes  are  bad  enough  all  along  the  river,  especially 
in  warm,  moist  summers,  but  they  seem  to  reach  their 
worst  in  these  parts. 

The  salmon,  as  even  the  most  casual  summer  visitor 
must  notice,  is  thus  a  most  important  factor  in  the  econ- 
omy of  interior  Alaska,  and  I  have  gathered  what  was 
to  say  of  the  salmon  into  these  recent  pages,  reserv- 
ing it  until  we  reached  the  region  of  greatest  abundance 
instead  of  scattering  it  throughout  the  book. 

TTie  shaman,  or  medicine-man,  that  tyrant  of  all 
primitive  peoples,  still  holds  sway  in  this  portion  of  the 
river,  though  elsewhere  his  power  has  greatly  waned 
and  in  many  places  has  altogether  gone.    Here  he  exacts 


ni 


;^! 


i84 


INDIAN  MEDICINE-MEN 


'I!  I 


the  old  tribute  from  a  considerable  portion  of  the  people, 
and  even  when  he  does  not  work  openly  there  is  reason 
to  believe  that  he  carries  on  his  conjurations  and  exor- 
cisms in  secret.  Among  the  evidf-nccs  of  Eskimo  in- 
fluence is  the  kazheem,  or  communal  sweat-bath  and 
men's  club-house,  an  institution  not  found  above  this 
point  on  the  river,  and  the  kazheem  is  the  stronghold 
of  the  shaman.  Here  new-born  children  are  brought  for 
certain  mystic  ceremonies,  and  here  heathen  rites  of  the 
dead  are  performe 

It  is  a  very  difficult  matter  to  decide  what  native 
customs  are  merely  innocuous  and  therefore  to  be 
tolerated  as  part  of  a  racial  cult  by  men  of  feeling  who 
do  not  lay  hands  wantonly  on  ancient  custom,  and  what 
are  pernicious  and  therefore  to  be  suppressed.  There 
is  much  that  is  merely  commemorative  aad  symbolic 
about  the  tribal  observances  of  such  primitive  people, 
and  there  is  much  that  is  openly  or  covertly  immoral; 
there  is  much  that  does  not  go  beyond  our  own  folk-lore 
and  fairy-tales,  and,  again,  there  is  much  that  has  no 
other  reason  than  the  expression  and  propagation  of  a 
belief  in  witchcraft  and  magic.  And  even  when,  after 
much  study  and  familiarity,  the  discrimination  can  be 
made,  it  is  hard  to  sift  out  the  elements  of  evil  and 
secure  their  abandonment. 

My  own  feeling  is  that  In  the  process  of  time  and 
education  and  persistent  Christian  teaching  the  thing  is 
bound  to  come  around  and  right  itself.  A  primer  of 
elementary  physics  is  a  good  antidote  to  a  belief  that 
the  shaman  can  conjure  storms;  a  modern  hospital  is  the 


VALUE  OF  ANIMISM 


i8s 


best  rival  to  the  witch-doctor,  and  the  teaching  of  the 
love  of  God  will  ultimately  abolish  the  childish  terror 
of  evil  spirits.  Moreover,  I  can  declare  with  Words- 
worth that 

"I'd  rather  be 

A  pagan  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn" 

than  go  about  this  beautiful  and  mysterious  world  with 
no  religion  whatever,  as  so  many  people  with  eyes  and 
ears  in  their  heads  do  to-day;  I  had  rather  believe  in  the 
power  of  the  medicine-man  than  in  no  power  at  all  be- 
yond the  blind  forces  of  nature;  rather  hold  to  his  venal 
and  sordid  and  self-deluded  supernaturalism  than  deem 
myself  caught  in  the  wheels  of  a  cosmic  machine  without 
brains  or  bowels  or  consciousness. 

For  there  is  this  much  truth  in  the  old  primitive  ani- 
mism;— it  recognises  that  the  world  and  life  are  full  of 
deep  mysteries,  that  there  is  something  in  man  superior 
to  himself  and  to  his  environment  that  does  not  die  with 
the  death  of  his  body,  and  it  seeks,  however  ciudely,  if 
not  to  penetrate  these  mysteries,  at  least  to  lay  hold 
upon  them,  to  keep  in  touch  with  them,  to  give  new 
glimpses  of  them  that  shall  make  men  less  forlorn;  it 
feels  out,  blindly,  groping  towards  them;  and  I  have 
a  tenderness  and  compassion  for  the  infant  gropings  of 
mankind  that  will  not  let  me  treat  them  with  harshness 
and  contempt. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1912  I  was  at  Anvik,  a  few 
days  after  the  eruption  of  Mt.  Katmai  had  overladen 
the  island  of  Kadiak  and  all  the  circumjacent  sea  with 


n 


Ili/i. 


I86  A  MAGICIANS'  C»NCLAVE 

volcanic  scorii.    The  natives  had  listened  with  awe  to 
the  distant  detonations,  had  seen  with  dismay  the  ob- 
scuration of  the  sun,  the  sudden  blackening  of  the  altar 
cross  and  vases  and  all  bright  metal  by  the  sulphur-laden 
air,  the  ground  covered  with  a  white,  impalpable  fluff  of 
ash  lighter  than  the  finest  snow;  and  the  medicine-men 
had  been  summoned  from  all  around  to  consider  what 
this  might  portend.    The  perturbation  amongst  the  peo- 
ple was  still  evident,  the  necromantic  conclave  yet  in 
session.    There  was  the  fat,  stolid,  crafty  local  practi- 
tioner, who  seeks  to  run  with  the  hare  of  the  old  profit- 
able cult  and  hunt  with  the  hounds  of  the  mission;  there 
was  the  little,  wizened,  ferret-eyed  "Barmazilia  medi- 
cme-man,"  thought  by  his  adherents  to  be  endowed  with 
a  quite  superior  thaumaturgy;  there  was  the  most  fanati- 
cal of  all,  the  old  Chageluk  Slough  shaman,  from  that 
rtronghold  of  custom  and  tradition.     And  I  would  have 
given  much  to  have  entered,  not,  indeed,  that  conclave, 
bu:  the  minds  of  the  participants.     Did  they,  these  re- 
positories of  the  legends  of  the  race,  recall  some  ancient 
instance  of  similar  dirturbance .'     Did  they,  "amidst  the 
tumult  from  afar"  hear  "ancestral  voices  prophesying 
war,"   like   Kubla   Khan  '     From   the  deep   recesses  of 
their  oM  animal  mythology,  did  they  evolve  some  ex- 
planation plausible  to  the  native  mind  ?    Whatever  their 
conciliar  deliverance  may  have  been,— and  no  word  of  it 
transpired.— one  reflects  that  they  knew  exactly  as  much 
about  the  ultimate  causes  of  volcanic  activity  as  the 
most  noted  professor  of  volcanology,  and  that  is  noth- 
ing at  all.     Internal  fire  of  course  there  if,  indeed  the 


II- r 


MISSION  EDUCATION 


187 


earth  seems  to  have  some  sort  of  pyrogenic  apparatus 
in  its  abdomen. 

We  pass  the  little  village  of  Barmizilia,  about  twenty 
miles  below  Anvik,  and  in  another  twenty  miles  are  at 
the  considerable  native  village  of  Koserefsky,  where  also 
is  the  chief  Roman  Catholic  centre  on  the  Yukon,  the 
mission  of  Holy  Cross. 

Situated  just  opposite  the  point  where  the  Chageluk 
Slough,  bearing  the  important  waters  of  the  Innoko 
River,  returns  to  the  Yukon,  Holy  Cross  (for  village  as 
well  as  mission  tends  to  bear  that  name  now)  is  of  com- 
mercial note  as  the  transfer-point  for  the  Iditarod  min- 
ing-camp. Here  an  old  steamboat  fitted  as  a  hotel  is 
mooied,  and  receives  passengers  who  must  wait  for  trans- 
fer to  the  mining-town  and  the  diggings. 

But  the  chief  importance  of  the  place  is  the  mission, 
with  its  school.  Here  is  the  largest  boarding-school  in 
the  country,  and  visitors  are  always  interested  in  the 
uniformed  native  pupils,  to  the  number  of  nearly  two 
hundred,  who  often  come  down  to  meet  the  steamboat. 
The  spacious  church,  with  its  lofty  tower,  is  the  finest 
building  on  the  Yukon  River,  unless  the  church  at  the 
Russian  Mission  at  Ikogmute  should  dispute  its  suprem- 
acy; the  dormitories  and  schoolrooms  are  capacious  and 
substantial  buildings,  and  the  whole  group  is  imposing 
in  size  and  scope  when  contrasted  with  the  meagre 
establishments  that,  for  the  most  part,  have  been  met 
with  hitherto. 

A  man  may  write  thus  who  does  not  care  for  their 
architecture  at  all;  who  holds  that,  for  lesthetic  and  prac- 


W' 


I 


'mim-^m^ 


wH^ 


i88 


A  MODEL  OK   EFFICIENCY 


•I; 


"■!  t 


/  " ' 


oiLift 


tical  reasons  alike,  log  buildings  are  far  more  suited  to 
the  country  than  buildings  of  lumber,  who  prefers  the 
sober  dignity  of  the  native  tree,  with  its  natural  bark,  to 
all  the  bravery  of  white  and  green  paint.  Log  buildings 
seem  to  grow  out  of  and,  therefore,  to  fit  into,  their 
forested  environment,  and  thus  to  be  racy  of  the  soil; 
painted  lumber  seems  e;:otic,  seems  to  have  been  ob- 
truded into  the  northern  wilderness. 

But  large  buildings  are  not  all  that  Holy  Cross  has 
to  interest  the  visitor;  I/ere  is  a  greater  extent  of  culti- 
vated ground  than  anywhere  else  on  the  river,  save  at 
the  Experimental  Station  at  Rampart,  and  here  is  that 
strange  sight  in  Alaska,  a  herd  of  milch  cows.  Every- 
thing that  can  be  extracted  from  the  soil,  directly  or 
indirectly,  for  the  subsistence  of  the  school,  is  diligently 
sought,  and  the  fathers  of  the  Jesuit  order,  in  whose 
charge  this  work  has  always  been,  deserve  warm  con- 
gratulation for  their  enterprise  and  industry.  A  steam- 
boat of  good  size,  named  St.  Joseph,  is  mamtained  for 
the  transportation  of  supplies  from  St.  Michael  to  this 
and  nthcr  Roman  Catholic  missions,  and  a  herd  of 
government  reindeer,  after  withdrawal  of  these  animals 
from  the  whole  ^'ukon  for  a  while,  because  they  had 
dwindled  rather  than  increased,  has  lately  been  restored 
to  Holy  Cross  and  to  the  Russian  Mission. 

Three  or  four  cleigy,  half  a  dozen  sisters,  and  a  num- 
ber of  lay  brothers,  drawn  from  the  great  army  of  de- 
voted workers  all  over  the  world  that  thi  Roman 
Catholic  Church  commands,  are  attaclicd  to  this  in- 
stitution,   and    permit    undertakings    that    the    >irnder 


■  ; 


1 

.'I 


m 


w 


FATAL  DEPOPULATION 


189 


staffs  and  stinted  resources  of  other  missions  cannot  at- 
tempt. 

Without  in  the  least  desiring  to  be  critical,  one  may 
perhaps  be  permitted  to  express  surprise  that  so  large  a 
staff  has  never  included  a  qualified  physician;  that 
amongst  the  numerous  buildings  there  is  not  a  modern 
hospital.  For  if  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  these 
native  people  deserve  attention,  and  efforts  to  ameliorate 
the  conditions  of  their  physical  existence  be  justly  within 
the  scope  of  missionary  service,  then  the  efforts  of  a 
skilled  physician  are  of  an  importance  which,  if  it  be  not 
equal  to  the  purely  spiritual  work  of  the  mission,  is 
certainly  equal  to  its  educational  and  industrial  work. 

The  native  population  of  these  parts — and  this  in- 
cludes Anvik — is  certainly  greatly  reduced.  Even  in 
Dall's  day  there  were  evidences  of  a  much  larger  popu- 
lation in  times  not  remote,  and  since  that  day  destruc- 
tive epidemics  of  disease  have  scourged  the  whole  region 
of  the  lower  river.  In  1900  (the  year  of  the  great  stam- 
pede to  Nome)  a  disease  resembling  measles  made  its 
way  up  the  river  from  St.  Michael,  slaying  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  inhabitants  of  every  village  in  its  course. 
I  was  told  by  the  superior  of  the  mission  at  Holy  Cross 
that  half  the  native  people  of  the  place  died  in  that 
visitation. 

One  is  sore  to  think  of  the  lives  that  might  have  been 
spared,  the  depopulation  that  might  have  been  checked, 
had  there  been  adequate  medical  service  at  hand,  for  a 
priest  with  a  smattering  of  medicine  and  a  sister  with  a 
few  drugs   and   bandages   are   a   poor   resource   against 


*J 


IM 

« 

1* 
( 


!-i  'I 


190 


PLEAS  FOR  MEDICAL  AID 


epidemic  sickness.    I  would  not  even  hint  blame  on 
others  without  taking  full  share  for  the  communion  I 
represent.     In  all  these  thirty  years  we  have  had  for 
only  two  or  three  years— and  that  long  ago— a  resident 
physician  at  Anvik;  and  it  is  only  recently  that  we  have 
provided  medical  f.irilities  at  Fort  Yukon  and  Tanana. 
But  Anvik  is  a  sm  !    place  compared  with  Holy  Cross, 
and  has  never  hat'  i.iore  than  one  man  and  two  women 
at  work— until  a  year  ago,  when,  owing  to  his  length  of 
service  and  advancing  years,  Doctor  Chapman  was  pro- 
vided with  a  lay  assistant.     Having  the  survival  of  the 
native  people  more  at  heart  than  anything  else,  if  I  had 
the  money  I  would  provide  an  adequate  modern  hospital 
for  Holy  Cross  and  the  stipend  of  a  qualified  physician; 
and  if  this  should  meet  the  eye  of  a  generous  member  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  of  means  equal  to  the  task, 
I  would  plead  that  in  no  other  way  could  greater  g»»d  be 
done  to  the  people  of  the  lower  river.     If  it  be  possible 
to  lay  up  treasure  in  heaven  by  helping  the  distressed 
or  the  unfortunate  (and  I  am  of  that  opinion)  I  can 
think  of  no  way  in  which  a  balance  may  be  more  surely 
transferred  to  the  celestial  account  than  by  providing 
the  zealous  men  and  women  of  Holy  Cross  with  the 
means  of  caring  for  the  sick  of  their  region  of  the  Yukon. 
It  is  easy  to  say  it  is  the  business  of  the  government; 
we  contented  ourselves  with  saying  that  for  many  years; 
now  we  do  not  talk  any  more  about  the  government  in 
connection  with  the  native  people  of  Alaska;  the  gov- 
ernment is  blind  to  everything  save  mining-camps  and 
town  sites,  deaf  to  everything  save  the  screech  of  its  new 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  YUKON  191 

locomotives.  It  is  the  business  of  the  church;  to  save 
the  people  alive  in  the  land  we  must  make  it  the  business 
of  the  church. 

Sometimes  while  standing  for  hours  at  the  wheel  of 
the  launch  Pelican,  slowly  grinding  up-stream,  or  slipping 
swiftly  down  with  the  current,  or  while  trudging  on 
snowshoes  ahead  of  the  dogs  in  the  winter,  beating  out 
a  trail  for  them  through  the  snow,  I  dream  and  speculate 
about  the  fui  'C  of  this  vast,  lonely  Yukon  country,  and 
I  can  bring  myself  to  no  forecast  in  which  the  native 
people  do  not  constitute  the  bulk  of  the  permanent  set- 
tled population  of  by  far  the  greater  part  of  it.  It  is  a 
good  and  sufficient  Indian  country;  it  would  support 
twice  or  thrice  its  present  Indian  inhabitants,  as  there  is 
evidence  it  has  done  in  the  past;  but  it  is  not  a  good 
white  man's  country  by  any  standard  that  countries 
have  been  judged  by  hitherto.  White  men  of  the  trad- 
ing class,  of  a  certain  shiftless,  casual  class,  there  will,  I 
suppose,  always  be,  and  their  blood  will  mix  with  the 
blood  of  the  native,  as  it  is  mixing  to-day,  and  will 
modify  it  to  an  increasing  extent.  Regions  where  valu- 
able ninerals  are  found  will  have  a  preponderating  or 
even  exclusive  white  population,  so  long  as  the  yidd 
persists. 

But  the  visions  that  gladden  the  eye  and  fire  the 
imagination  of  many,  visions  of  great  tracts  under  the 
plough  and  still  greater  tracts  under  fence  for  pasture, 
visions  of  ranches  and  farms  and  contented  homes  all 
over  the  Yukon  wilderness,  will  not  take  form  before 
my  eyes. 


I^i 


t 

( 

u 


I 


i. 


If  ' 

III! 


I 


i 


192        PROSPECTS  FOR  THE  WHITE  MAN 

Much  comparison  of  a  rather  superficial  kind  is  made 
with  Norway  by  those  who  are  possessed  of  this  vision, 
on  the  assumption  that  climatic  and  agricultural  condi- 
tions are  similar.  Let  the  assumption  stand,  and  the 
fact  remains  that  no  more  than  eight  or  nine  per  cent  of 
that  country  is  under  cultivation  to-day  after  all  the  ages 
of  its  occupation,  and  that  three-fourths  of  its  population 
inhabit  the  regions  immediately  adjacent  to  the  coast. 

That  a  similar  development  is  possible  for  Alaska  I 
am  quite  ready  to  believe,  but  consider  the  enormous 
area  that  remains;  consider  the  half-million  of  square 
miles  and  more  that  would  correspond  to  Norway's 
waste  hundred  thousand.  It  is  this  vast  inland  region 
which,  to  my  mind,  will  either  be  a  wilderness  inhabited 
by  Indians  or  a  wilderness  not  inhabited  at  all.  Which 
is  preferable  ?  Shall  the  white  man  dispossess  without 
any  probability  of  himself  entering  upon  possession  ? 
Shall  he  destroy  with  no  likelihood  of  restoration  ?  To 
wipe  out  a  simple  primitive  people  by  liquor  and  disease 
is  just  as  flagitious  as  to  exterminate  them  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  the  depopulated  wastes  of  interior  ALska, 
if  depopulated  they  be,  will  cry  out  on  our  boasted  civili- 
sation as  loudly  as  the  depopulated  wastes  of  Asia  cry 
out  to  this  day  on  the  merciless  barbarism  of  Genghis 
Khan  and  Tamerlane. 

I  do  not  wish  to  claim  for  the  work  in  which  we  are 
engaged  and  the  similar  work  in  which  others  are  en- 
gaged any  more  than  its  due;  I  do  not  wish  to  claim  any- 
thing at  all  for  it  save  in  so  far  as  by  presenting  such 
claim  that  work  itself  may  be  aided  to  greater  efficiency. 


MISSIONS  PROTECT  THE  NATIVES        193 

but  I  believe  it  is  just  to  say  that  if  the  Alaskan  Indian 
be  preserved  in  the  land  it  will  be  due  more  to  the  efforts 
of  Christian  missions  than  to  all  other  influences  put 
together.  It  is  the  missionaries  who  have  fought  the 
distribution  of  liquor,  who  have  fought  the  flagrant, 
brutal  immorality  of  low-down  whites,  who  have  spurred 
the  laggard  law  to  such  eflForts  at  enforcement  as  have 
been  made,  who  have  cheerfully  incurred  all  sorts  of 
personal  odium  in  the  struggle  to  protect  the  natives 
from  those  who  for  lust  or  gain  would  debauch  and 
destroy  them.  The  visitor  is  very  likely  to  hear  the 
echo  of  such  odium,  and  should  remember  that  the 
measure  of  the  unpopularity  of  a  missionary  to  the  In- 
dians amongst  a  certain  class  on  the  steamboats  and  in 
the  drinking-shops  and  on  the  water-fronts  of  towns, 
may  very  possibly  be  the  measure  of  his  usefulness. 

From  Koserefsky  to  Ikogmute,  that  is  to  say  from 
Holy  Cross  to  the  Russian  Mission,  is  about  another 
forty  miles,  in  which  the  river  maintains  a  course  due 
south.  The  Kuskokwim,  meanwhile,  has  been  approach- 
ing the  Yukon  so  rapidly  that  at  a  point  on  the  left  bank 
called  Pimute  they  are  separated  by  no  more  than  thirty 
miles,  as  the  crow  flies.  Low-lying  lands,  with  lakes 
and  streams  nearly  all  the  way,  afford  an  easy  passage 
from  the  one  great  river  to  the  other  in  about  double 
the  distance  just  mentioned.  This  is  the  Pimute  Por- 
tage, which  has  been  in  common  use  since  the  Russian 
days,  when  it  served  to  connect  the  trading-ports  from 
St.  Michael  to  Nulato,  with  Redoubt  Kolmakofsky  on 
the  Kuskokwim. 


II 


i 


m 


u 


4 


MOOCOrV    IISOIUTION  IKT  CHMT 

(ANSI  aiid  ISO  lEST  CMA«I  No,  2) 


^l^i^ 


J     APPLIED  IM/1GE     In. 


194 


RUSSIAN  CHURCH  IN  ALASKA 


L  .    i 


The  Russian  Mission  is  the  sole  surviving  agency  and 
evidence  on  the  Yukon  of  the  rule  of  the  Czar  in  these 
parts.  Its  picturesque  Byzantine  architecture  has  the 
interest  and  attractiveness  of  a  civilisation  and  a  Chris- 
tian culture  strange  to  western  eyes.  One  speculates  as 
to  what  would  have  happened  had  the  Purchase  never 
taken  place;  would  similar  bulbous  domes  rise  over  Xa- 
nana.'— would  Fairbanks  present  the  characteristic  ap- 
pearance of  a  Siberian  town  ? — or  would  towns  at  Xanana 
and  Fairbanks  have  ever  existed  ? 

Xhe  missionary  work  of  the  Greek;  Church  is  mori- 
bund in  Alaska  to-day — certainly  in  the  interior  and, 
one  suspects,  on  the  coast  as  well.  For  a  number  of 
years  past  it  has  been  without  any  episcopal  supervision, 
and  has  slackened  and  degenerated  in  consequence. 
Xhose  who  remember  Bishop  Innocenti  and  his  prog- 
resses down  the  lower  Yukon  to  St.  Michael,  will  regret, 
at  any  rate,  the  loss  of  a  picturesque  and  benevolent 
character,  a  not  unworthy  successor,  one  thinks,  of  the 
saintly  VeniaminofF,  whose  praise  is  in  all  the  books  on 
Alaska,  and  the  brightening  of  dull  lives  by  impressive 
and  gorgeous  ceremonies.  Here  and  there  along  the 
river,  from  Nulato  down,  may  be  seen  graves  surmounted 
by  the  same  triple  cross  that  rises  above  the  church  at 
Ikogmute,  and  since  the  form  of  that  cross  has  become 
the  mark  of  identification  of  the  Greek  Church  and  often 
excites  curiosity  and  inquiry,  it  may  not  be  out  of  place 
to  explain  that  the  uppermost  crosspiece  represents  the 
superscription  that  Pilate  wrote,  and  the  lowermost 
crosspiece   the   support   that   received   the   feet   of  the 


-I, 


%% 


''i 


THE  ESKIMO  ZONE 


I9S 


Crucified  One.  The  angle  at  which  this  last  is  always 
inclined  is  purely  conventional,  as,  of  course,  is  the 
whole  symbol.  But  whereas  the  plain  or  Latin  cross 
has  become  the  general  symbol  of  Christianity,  this 
peculiar  form  of  it  is,  nowadays,  the  specific  indication 
of  the  Greek  or  Russian  Church,  which,  all  told,  must 
number  amongst  its  members  close  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  millions  of  mankind. 

It  is  hard  to  find  detailed  and  definite  information 
about  the  planting  of  the  Russian  missions  in  Alaska, 
but  this  post  dates  back  long  before  the  Purchase.  It 
was  an  old-established  mission  when  the  early  explorers, 
to  whom  such  frequent  reference  has  been  made,  passed 
down  the  river.  Much  of  the  early  history  of  Alaska 
still  lies  locked  up  in  the  little-known  language  of  Russia.* 

We  are  now  amongst  the  Eskimos  .  .  have  left  the 
Indian  people  and  the  Indian  language  behind  us.  The 
skin  boat,  covered  all  over  save  where  the  boatman  sits 
in  a  well  in  the  centre,  supersedes  the  birchbark  canoe, 
the  double  paddle  the  single  one,  the  much  more  devel- 
oped Innuit  culture  the  simpler  and  cruder  Ingalik. 

But  while  these  people  ?re  of  the  same  stock  and  the 

*  It  is  interesting  that  just  when  Miss  Agnes  Laut  ("  Lords  of  the  North," 
"Pathfinders  of  the  West,"  "Conquest  of  the  Great  Northwest,"  etc.) 
has  been  delving  into  the  archives  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  House  in  London, 
for  the  original  story  of  the  penetration  of  the  continent  from  the  east,  Mr. 
F.  A.  G  '  ("Russian  Expansion  on  the  Pacific")  has  been  delving  into 
the  arch  ."  the  Russian  Fur  Company  at  St.  Petersburg  for  the  original 

story  of  V  penetration  of  the  continent  from  the  west.  So  far  Mr.  Golder's 
work  is  in  the  main  Asiatic  and  preliminary,  but  he  promises  a  conti.ua- 
tion  which  those  concerned  with  the  early  history  of  Alaska  will  eagerly 
expect.  Their  work  will  meet,  one  hopes,  on  the  Yukon.  One  wishes,  how- 
ever, that  Miss  Laut  could  borrow  something  of  Mr.  Golder's  historical 
Kdateness,  and,  in  her  turn,  lend  him  a  little  of  her  superfluous  vivacity. 


111 

I! 


M 


.*l ' 


I* 


ill 


196 


BROAD  REACHES  IN  RIVER 


same  root  language  as  the  Eskimos  of  the  coast,  they  are 
much  modified  by  their  river  life.  The  EsiN.imos  are  the 
finest  native  people  of  which  I  have  any  knowledge,  but 
I  would  not  adduce  these  riparian  folk  in  support  of  that 
statement;  I  would  present  the  marine  Eskimos  with 
whom  we  shall  come  into  contact  by  and  by.  For  the 
same  contrast  exists  between  these  divisions  of  the  race 
as  between  the  Indians  of  the  upper  and  the  lower  river. 
The  flesh  of  the  seal,  the  walrus,  and  the  whale  takes  the 
strength-giving  place  of  moose  and  caribou  and  moun- 
tain-sheep meat,  and  the  chase  of  these  pelagic  mammals 
in  the  stormy  and  foggy  waters  and  amidst  the  ice  of 
Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean  demands,  and  there- 
fore in  large  measure  produces,  a  vigour  and  a  courage 
even  superior  to  that  required  in  the  ch:se  of  the  land- 
animals.  But  I  must  withhold  my  hand  from  the  coast- 
wise Eskimos  until  we  reach  their  habitat. 

After  leaving  the  Russian  Mission  the  Yukon  desists 
from  its  southerly  course,  having  reached  its  lowest  lati- 
tude in  about  61°  44',  which  is  nearly  the  latitude  of 
Lake  Lebarge;  it  now  takes  a  decided  bend  to  the  west 
and  then  to  the  north  of  west  until  Andreafsky  is  reached, 
after  which  its  course  is  due  north  to  its  mouth.  In 
these  reaches  the  river  becomes  very  wide;  indeed,  at 
times  one  bank  is  scarce  visible  from  the  other,  and  in 
rough  weather  navigation  may  become  so  difficult  that 
steamboats  will  tie  up  for  the  wind  and  waves  to  abate. 

About  "ifty  miles  below  the  Russian  Mission  we 
reach,  on  the  right  bank,  sitting  at  the  foot  of  a  high  hill 
known  from  a  prospector's  name  as  the  Pilcher  Moun- 


I' 


I 


NEW  GOLD  FINDS 


'97 


tain,  the  new  mining-town  of  Marshall,  gold  having  been 
found  on  Wilson  Creek  in  its  vicinity  in  the  summer  of 
1913.  The  creek  was  named  for  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  town  for  the  Vice-President. 
The  camp  was  a  small  one  and  not  very  favourably 
regarded  until  the  summer  of  1916,  when  another  creek 
(Willow)  was  found  to  contain  much  coarse  gold  amidst 
glacial  boulders,  and  it  is  said  that  the  output  of  that 
season  reached  the  half-million  mark.  In  the  town 
(which  is  very  small,  for  the  diggings  are  close  at  hand) 
and  the  creeks,  there  were  some  two  hundred  and  fifty 
whites  in  the  summer  just  mentioned.  The  population 
of  these  camps  varies  so  greatly  from  time  to  time  that 
one  does  not  care  to  set  down  a  figure  without  appending 
a  date. 

The  occurrence  of  gold  so  far  down  the  Yukon  was  a 
great  surprise  to  most  Alaskan  miners,  and  shows  again 
how  wide-spread  is  the  distribution  of  placers  throughout 
the  whole  territory.  From  the  Chisana  camp  in  the 
extreme  east  to  Nome  in  the  extreme  west,  from  the 
Sushitna  in  the  south  to  the  Koyukuk  in  the  north  (with 
a  strong  probability  of  its  discovery  in  the  arctic  slope 
beyond  that),  there  is  no  region  in  which  profitable  fluvial 
d''posits  of  gold  have  not  been  found.  But  it  takes, 
and  will  always  take,  rich  placers  to  pay  for  the  extrac- 
tion of  the  metal  in  continental  Alaska.  They  are  soon 
worked  out  and  the  country  thereupon  reverts  to  the 
wilderness.  The  very  name  "camp,"  by  which  diggings 
are  always  described,  indicates  that  there  is  no  "abiding 
city"  in  these  settlements. 


ih 


■  >''  i- 


lir 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  DELTA  COUNTRY.  BERING  SEA,  AND  ST.  MICHAEL 

Dropping  down  an  ever-widening  river,  the  traveller 
who  has  observed  nothing  else  must  observe  the  great 
change  that  is  gradually  coming  over  the  landscape. 
The  spruce-trees  are  thinning  out.  Here  at  Pilot  Sta- 
tion, a  native  village  about  twenty  miles  from  Marshall, 
with  a  govern  nent  school,  a  Roman  Catholic  church  and 
two  small  trading-posts,  is  still  timber,  but  in  another 
twenty  miles  we  pass  the  last  spruce-tiee.  The  familiar 
coniferous  forest  that  has  lined  the  banks  ever  since  the 
voyage  was  launched  at  Whitehorse,  and  has  given  char- 
acter to  the  river,  is  gone.  Clumps  of  cottonwood  will 
be  seen  here  and  there  for  a  while  yet,  but  the  willow  is 
now  the  chief  growth.  We  approach  the  tundra  country 
of  the  delta,  covered  with  dense  moss,  from  which  springs 
scrubby  willow  brush;  we  approach  the  sea. 

About  a  mile  up  the  Andreafsky  River,  which  comes 
in  on  the  right  bank  about  fifty  miles  below  Marshall,  is 
the  abandoned  post  of  Andreafsky,  and  at  Andreafsky 
the  tide  is  felt,  though  it  is  still  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Almost  the  last  hills 
lie  about  Andreafsky.  On  the  left  bank  no  elevation  has 
been  visible  for  many  miles,  save  the  dome  of  the  soli- 
tary "Kusilvak"  Mountain,  twenty-five  hundred  feet 
high,  which  rises  from  the  midst  of  the  delta  country 

far  to  the  west.     Already  the  largest  mouth  of  the  Yukon, 

.98 


AN  EARI,^■  RUSSIAN  SEITLEMENT  i<« 
the  Kwishluak,  has  led  off  its  water  from  the  main 
stream,  that  bifurcation  takinj  place  a  few  miles  above. 
But  this  south  mouth  is  not  avigated  in  general;  the 
steamboat  exit  is  by  the  nortn  or  Aphoon  mouth,  which 
leads  to  St.  Michael. 

If  the  steamboat  be  an  oil-burner  she  may  put  in  to 
Andreafsky  to  pump  oil  from  a  bar„'e,  or  she  may  put 
in  to  drop  a  barge  or  to  pick  one  up,  and.  if  so,  the  visitor 
will  have  opportunity  to  inspect  a  place  that  is  not 
without  interest. 

The  place  dates  back  to  a  Rnssiin  settlement  in  1853, 
and  in  1855  it  was  the  scene  of  a  surprise  and  murder  by 
natives  sinilar  to  that  at  Nulato,  though  on  a  much 
smaller  scale.    As  the  two  Russians  who  were  in  the  fort 
came  naked  out  of  their  sweat-bath  the.   •  ere  set  upon 
and  killed  with  clubs  and  knives.     Unlike  the  Nulato 
massacre,  this  outrage  was  amply  avenged.    A  party 
from  St.  Michael  crossed  over  the  hills  and  exterminated 
the  inhabitants  of  the  village  where  the  assassins  lived. 
Says  Dall  eleven  years  later:  "From  that  day  to  this  not 
a  native  on  the  lower  Yukon  has  lifted  his  hand  against 
the  whites."    It  is  said  that  round  the  necks  of  the 
Indian  assassins  were  found  crosses,  indicating  that  they 
had  been  baptised  at  the  Russian  Mission;  but  the  Rus- 
sian Mission  is  not  the  oi..y  mission  which  has  had  cause 
to  repent  the  too  early  and  too  easy  baptism  of  cv^echu- 
mens,  in  Alaska  and  elsewhere. 

With  the  great  development  of  steamboat  traffic  fol- 
lowing the  Klondike  discoveries,  Andreafsky  became  a 
place  of  much  importance.     It  is  the  first  convenient 


1 

!  N    ' 
■'I 

4 


200 


DISUSED  STEAMBOATS 


harbour  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  up,  and  since  there 
is  no  port  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon,  this  place  took 
something  of  that  nature.  Here  were  the  warehouses, 
stores,  and  dwellings  of  the  Northern  Comii.-rcial  Com- 
pany. A  mile  above  were  the  extensive  winter  quarters 
of  the  company,  including  machine-shops,  a  large  hotel, 
a  marine  railway  for  hauling  out  steamboats,  and  an 
electric  plant  to  light  the  buildings.  Here  the  crews  of 
many  steamboats  wintered  that  they  might  be  on  hand 
for  the  navigation  of  the  river  before  it  is  possible  to 
reach  St.  Michael  by  sea.  Most  of  these  plants  still 
stand,*  but  the  whole  place  is  deserted  and  abandoned. 
The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  place  is  the  "bone- 
yard,"  as  it  is  called,  where  a  number  of  disused  steam- 
boats are  hauled  out  to  rot  and  decay  It  was  in  the 
early  summer  when  last  I  put  in  to  Andreafsky,  and, 
though  it  was  near  midnight,  with  the  aid  of  field-glasses 
I  was  able  to  read  some  of  the  names  of  these  derelicts, 
and  I  find  "Tacoma,"  "Alice,"  "Victoria,"  "Gustin," 
wr;  -n  down  in  my  diary  as  those  I  could  make  out, 
thougli  there  were  a  number  of  others.  After  the  North- 
ern Commercial  Company  absorbed  the  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company,  it  was  the  custom  to  maintain  the  virtual 
monopoly  of  fhe  river  by  buying  up  any  independent 
boats  that  were  put  upon  it.  It  was  cheaper,  I  suppose, 
to  buy  them  up  and  haul  them  out  than  to  let  them 
reduce  freight  rates  by  competition. 


•  I  have  learned  since  writing  the  above  that  a  violent  storm  in  the 
winter  1915-16  levelled  a  number  of  these  buildings  with  the  ground,  and 
that  others  were  torn  down  and  the  lumber  used  in  buildings  at  Marshall. 


.11 


't 


li 


L'  J 


mi 


ii        .,  I' 

1:   ' ' 

■'I 
'ill 

Ij 


iil 

I 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  ON  THE  YUKON     201 

There  is  an  irresistible  melancholy  about  such  a  place 
as  this.  Its  extensive  and  substantial  buildings  uselessly 
burden  the  barren  hillside,  the  stir  of  commerce  is  stilled, 
the  warehouses  empty,  the  fires  under  the  steamboat 
boilers  are  long  since  drawn,  never  again  to  be  lighted; 
the  whistles  will  never  again  shrill  the  air  and  draw 
whites  and  natives  alike  hurrying  to  the  bank.  Here 
comes,  perhaps,  an  old  Eskimo  in  his  skin  canoe,  with  a 
salmon  or  a  bucket  of  blueberries  to  sell,  according  to 
the  season— and  that  represents  the  trade  of  a  place  that 
was  once  the  most  important  commercial  point  below 
Dawson. 

The  times  of  the  Klondike  stampede  were  spacious 
times  for  the  Yukon.    Anything  that  could  stem  its 
current  was  valuable  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  craft 
on  any  other  river  in  the  world.    I  wish  I  had  the  list 
that  I  suppose  some  one  at  St.  Michael  must  have  kept 
of  every  steamboat  that  went  up  the  river.    I  wish  I 
had  myself  kept  record  of  the  wrecked  boats  I  have  seen, 
or  seen  fragments  of,  or  heard  the  story  of,  along  the 
Yukon  and  the  Koyukuk.    I  wish  I  had  a  complete  list 
of  the  contents  of  the  boneyards  at  Andreafsky  and  St. 
Michael.    Doubtless  the  chief  blow  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  lower-river  route  and  to  the  huge  establishments  ^t 
Andreafsky  and  St.  Michael  was  the  opening  of  the 
White  Pass  Railway  and  the  steamboat  line  that  con- 
nected with  it  in  1900,  and  the  deflection  of  the  traffic 
that  followed.    But  in  that  year  the  Klondike  had  al- 
ready reached  its  maximum  output  of  ^22,000,000,  and 
the  decline  was  so  rapid  that  by  1906  it  had  been  reduced 


r  1} 


mr^ 


202  UNCHARTED  REGION 

almost  to  one-fourth  of  that  amount,  with  a  tonnage  of 
freight  in  proportion. 

So  here  these  stranded  steamboats  lie;  and  as  we 
think  of  a  ship  in  the  water  as  something  personal  and 
sentient,  so  these  ships  seem  to  me  dead  and  buried; 
buried  in  the  primitive  native  way  of  these  parts,  above 
ground,  lifted  up  on  piles,  as  the  Eskimo  graves  were 
lifted  up  on  poles,  to  desiccate  and  decay  in  the  air;  and  I 
suppose  that  if  they  stay  there  long  enough  there  will 
come  men  poking  and  prying  into  their  bowels,  carrying 
off  pieces  of  rusty,  archaic  machinery  for  exhibition  in 
museums,  just  as  Eskimo  graves  are  rifled  to-day  and 
the  poor  skulls  and  bones  carried  triumphantly  off  in  the 
sacred  name  of  science.* 

Leaving  the  Andreafsky  River  and  dropping  down  the 
Yukon  again,  we  are  hard  upon  the  delta  country,  a 
wide  waste  that  has  never  been  surveyed  or  mapped  save 
in  the  roughest  way.  Indeed,  this  observation  applies 
to  much  of  the  whole  course  of  the  river.  There  are  no 
sailing  marks,  no  indications  of  the  points  at  which  to 
make  difficult  crossings,  no  aids  whatever  to  navigation 
along  the  whole  extent  of  this  great  rivei  save  the  few 
that  individual  steamboat  captains  have  from  time  to 
time  set  up.  Since  there  is  only  one  generally  used 
mouth  of  the  Yukon,  only  one  that  leads  the  way  to  St. 


•  Dall  himself  was  not  above  skull-snatching,  and  the  only  ignominious 
inadent  in  his  narrative  of  two  years'  intercourse  with  the  natives  is  that 
in  which  he  describes  himself  as  waiting  for  a  snow-storm  that  would  cover 
his  tracks  and  conceal  his  movements,  and  then  sneaking  off  at  night  to  a 
graveyard,  making  a  wide  detour  and  coming  back  another  way,  to  be- 
head a  defenceless  corpse  and  carry  off  the  grisly  prize. 


THE  DELTA  COUNTRY  203 

Michael,  and  this  one  is  entered  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  up-stream  amongst  a  maze  of  sloughs  and  false 
channels,  u  might  be  thought  that  its  occurrence  would 
e  announced  by  some  prominent  sign  upon  its  bank 
ut  there  is  nothing;  and  I  suppose  many  a  small  craft 
has  blundered  into  the  wrong  channel,  as  the  Pelican  did 
m  the  summer  of  1913  with  the  bishop  aboard,  and  found 
Itself  out  m  the  shallow  mud-flats  of  Bering  Sea  before  it 
realised  that  it  had  gone  astray.    It  was  proposed  on 
that  occasion  that  we  coast  around  to  St.  Michael,  but 
we  had  no  compass  and  no  chart  and  would  have  had 
to  go  far  out  of  sight  of  the  low-lying  land  to  find  water 
enough  to  navigate.     So  we  turned  back  and  lost  the 
best  part  of  a  day. 

But  how  desolate  this  delta  country  is,  and  how  poor 
and  mean  the  whole  coast-line  of  it,  I  never  realised  until 
that  occasion.    There  is  a  desolation  that  has  dignity 
the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  are  desolate  enough 
with  sometimes  no  sign  of  human  life  for  scores  of  miles' 
but  there  IS  the  great  expanse  of  golden  sand  rising  into 
tufted  hillocks,  there  are  the  flashing  surges,  there  are 
the  water-fowl.    Here  on  the  shores  of  Bering  Sea  one 
sees  nothing  but  flat  mud-banks  rising  a  few  inches  above 
the  tide,  strewed  here  and  there  with  sticks  of  bleaching 
driftwood  which  here  and  there,  it  may  be,  some  Eskimo 
has  piled  upright  that  it  be  not  so  easily  carried  off  by 
high  water.    Not  a  tree,  not  a  bush  breaks  the  monot- 
ony, not  the  slightest  deviation  from  the  perfect  level 
of  the  moss-covered  earth  that  does  no  more  than  emerge 
from  the  water.    It  is  said  by  navigators  that  for  more 


204 


SCENE  OF  DESOLATION 


|i<  ,ii 


than  one  hundred  miles  of  this  coast  there  is  positively 
no  landmark  of  any  kind.  And  if  it  be  a  gloomy,  still 
day,  as  it  was  on  the  occasion  referred  to,  with  mist  in 
the  air  premonitory  of  rain,  I  have  seen  no  region  of  the 
earth  so  squalidly  forlorn.  There  is  no  "glad,  indom- 
itable sea"  here.  Dull  and  stagnant  lie  the  brackish 
waters,  not  two  feet  deep  for  miles  and  miles  beyond 
the  shore;  the  mud  rises  and  more  densely  clouds  them 
when  the  boat  touches  bottom;  the  birds  do  not  fre- 
quent them,  even  the  fish  avoid  them,  and  the  moment 
one  steps  ashore  the  seeming  solid  ground  is  found  to 
be  naught  but  morass.  There  is  not  even  "a  magic  in 
the  distance,  where  the  sea-line  meets  the  sky"  that 
accompanies  the  most  commonplace  coast,  for  sea  and 
sky  merge  in  a  lifeless,  indistinguishable  blur.  I  think  if 
the  Czar  had  ever  seen  the  delta  coast  he  would  have 
kept  it  for  the  exile  of  those  political  offenders  he  hated 
most. 

It  is  here  that  the  Yukon  is  depositing  the  burden  it 
has  so  long  carried  in  solution;  it  is  here  that  it  is  con- 
tinually extending  seaward  the  great  expanse  of  land 
(one  wishes  one  could  say  dry  land)  it  has  already  made, 
gradually  building  it  out  into  Bering  Sea,  gradually 
filling  up  Bering  Sea.  Granite  and  shale  from  the  tops 
of  the  highest  mountains,  ground  up  in  the  mighty  mills 
of  the  glaciers  to  the  smoothest  paste,  and  earned  off  in 
swirling  black  floods  from  underneath  the  wasting  ice- 
foot all  the  summer  long,  porphyries  and  quartzites  from 
the  foothills  and  pene-plains,  sand  that  it  has  scooped 
from  the  frozen  banks  of  the  Flats,  where  it  undercut 


i 

1 1 


"FLUMEN  EDAX  RERUM"  205 

them  until  they  fell  into  its  flood,  mud  from  the  shores 
of  every  one  of  its  thousand  tributaries  and  tributaries- 
tributaries,  are  all  ultimately  brought  here.    Here  we 
might  find  the  water-front  of  Fort  Yukon  that  was  eaten 
away  so  ravenously  in  the  summer  of  1916,  and  many 
an  island  that  has  disappeared  altogether;  and  here,  too, 
comes  ultimately  the  wash  of  the  sluice-boxes,  carrying 
the  fine  flour  gold  that  the  most  painstaking  care  of  the 
mmer  cannot  save,  with  vegetable  mould  and  dead  moss 
and  the  fine  powder  of  rotten  wood.     It  is  all  dissolved 
and  swallowed  up  and  transported  hither,  and  here  dis- 
gorged  and   thrown   down.     For  a  couple  of  hundred 
miles  to  the  south,  without  counting  indentations,  the 
same  thing  is  going  on,  for  when  there  is  an  end  of  the 
Yukon's  mouths  the  great  Kuskokwim  River  takes  up 
the  work.    Almost  the  whole  eastern  shore  of  Bering 
Sea  IS  of  this  character.     We  recognise  one  of  the  great 
ceaseless  processes  of  nature:  "Every  valley  shall  be 
exalted  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made  low." 
But  the  process  is  not  beautiful  on  the  shores  of  Bering 
Sea. 

There  are  five  main  mouths  of  the  Yukon,— the 
Aphoon,  down  which  our  steamboat  will  carry  us  pres- 
ently, the  Ok-we'-ga,  the  Kwik'-pak,  the  Kwish'-lu-ak 
(known  by  white  men  as  the  Kus'-sel-vick),  and  the 
Kwem'-e-luk.  In  spring  and  in  any  flood-time  there  are 
many  more,  of  which  the  Kash'-u-rauk  opens  into  Hazen 
Bay,  and  is  then  navigable  for  all  river-craft,  though  in 
summer  it  can  be  used  only  by  canoes.  Between  this 
mouth  and  the  last-mentioned  of  the  five  main  mouths. 


I 


1; 

■  1:1 ' 


m 

Jl! 


306 


THE  LOST  RIVER  REACHES 


r 


I; 

! 

I 


i, 


the  Kwishluak,  are  a  dozen  smalt  ones.  These  partic- 
ulars of  the  delta,  with  the  phonetic  orthography  of  the 
native  names,  I  owe  to  Mr.  Frank  Wasky,  of  Marshall, 
Alaska's  first  delegate  to  Congress,  a  careful  and  intelli- 
gent observer,  familiar  with  the  region. 

Through  this  wide  delta  country,  intersected  every- 
where with  watercourses,  and  not  traversable  in  sum- 
mer save  by  these  watercourses,  are  scattered  several 
thousands  of  river  Eskimos. 

Missionary  work  is  done  amongst  them  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  which  has  a  considerable  establishment 
on  the  Nunavarrock  Slough,  between  two  of  the  mouths, 
and  there  are  several  government  schools  in  the  delta. 
I  should  say,  however,  that,  on  the  whole,  this  delta 
country  is  one  of  the  least-known  parts  of  Alaska,  and 
its  natives  least  influenced  in  any  way  by  contact  with 
the  whites. 

I  jumped  from  Andreafski  to  the  mouth  too  soon, 
being  led  away  by  my  indignation  at  the  absence  of  all 
sailing  directions  on  the  river  to  tell  of  the  Pelican  blun- 
dering out  to  sea  at  the  wrong  place. 

Twenty  miles  below  Andreafski,  where  positively  the 
last  height  of  land  is  passed,  lies  Mountain  Village,  with 
a  government  school,  a  government  physician,  two 
traders,  and  a  dozen  cabins. 

The  steamboat  turns  at  last  into  the  northernmost 
or  Aphoon  mouth  of  the  river,  which  presently  takes  a 
narrow  and  well-defined  form,  and  passes  Old  Hamilton, 
where  are  a  rather  pretentious  store  for  such  a  small 
place,  and  a  little  Roman  Catholic  chapel;  and  in  a  short 


NORTON  SOUND  ,07 

time  more  the  wireless  standard  of  Kotlik  appears  on 
the  horuon.  where  is  a  Signal  Corps  station  from  which 
the  passage  of  boats  into  Bering  Sea  is  reported  to  St 
Michael. 

There  is  a  bar  at  the  mouth  on  which  a  dredge  has 
been  working  for  a  number  of  years,  sucking  out  the 
sand  and  mud  at  one  end  and  casting  it  forth  again  at 
the  other,  and  thus  gradually  deepening  a  channel. 
Ihere  is  said  to  be  not  less  than  three  feet  of  water  now 
at  low  tide.  The  tide  is  small  throughout  Bering  Sea, 
and  IS  much  influenced  by  the  wind;  ,t  averages  about 
three  feet. 

Once  over  the  bar.  the  vessel  is  out  in  Bering  Sea.  in 
that  large  arm  of  it  known  as  Norton  Sound,  with  a 
voyage  thereon  of  sixty-eight  miles  to  the  port  of  St 
Michael  before  it.  This  coast  is  not  as  doleful  as  the 
delta  coast  below.  The  bold  headland  of  Point  Roma- 
noff looms  up  some  twenty-five  miles  distant,  and  the 
water  is  a  little  deeper;  still  it  is.  on  the  whole,  a  flat 
and  unmteresting  shore  that  we  keep  in  sight. 

Point  Romanoff,  say  the  cartographers,  is  the  "Point 
Shallow  Water"  of  Captain  Cook,  upon  which  the  family 
name  of  the  imperial  house  was  superimposed  in  Russian 
days;  and  the  steamboats  give  it  a  wide  berth  because 
three  miles  out  no  more  than  four  feet  of  water  is  found 
For  we  are  now  come  again  to  the  track  of  the  great 
navigators  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  Captain  Cook 
IS  sponsor  for  the  more  important  of  the  names  we  shall 
yet  encounter,  as  George  Vancouver  was  for  the  names 
along  the  Inside  Passage. 


Hi 


i 


:i 


I 


208 


VITUS   BERING 


\i\ 


The  sea  itself  on  which  we  are  sailing  is  rightly  named 
after  Vitus  Bering,  the  Danish  sailor  in  Russian  employ 
who  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  endeavouring  amidst 
the  utmost  difficulties  to  carry  out  Peter  the  Great's 
instructions  and  determine  the  eastern  bsunds  of  the 
Asiatic  continent.  Bering  passed  through  the  straits 
that  bea-  his  name  in  1728,  in  heavy  wea'her,  but  did 
not  know  that  they  were  straits,  and  never  saw  the 
American  continent  until  his  third  voyage  in  1741,  when 
he  saw  the  coast  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mt.  St.  Elias. 
The  delimitation  of  Bering's  Straits  and  the  deter- 
mination of  the  closest  approximation  of  the  two  con- 
tinents was  made  by  Captain  Cook  in  1778,  who  vindi- 
cated the  accuracy  of  Bering's  observations,  and  with 
characteristic  greatness  set  Bering's  name  on  the  narrow 
passage  between  the  continents  which  he  had  unwittingly 
passed  through  fifty  years  before. 

Norton  Sound  was  named  by  Cook  for  Sir  Fletcher 
Norton,  speaker  of  the  English  House  of  Commons, 
afterwards  Lord  Grantley,  a  lawyer-politician  of  the 
factious  times  of  George  III,  who  was  known  amongst 
his  opponents  as  Sir  Bull-Face  Doublefee,  of  whom 
Horace  Walpole  says  that  he  "rose  from  obscure  infamy 
to  infamous  fame";  but  Horace  Walpole  was  something 
of  a  politician  himself  and  could  be  very  spiteful.  Cook 
gave  the  name  because  his  officer  who  made  the  detailed 
examination  of  the  sound  was  a  near  relative  of  Nor- 
ton's. One  could  wish  that  Cook  had  honoured  the 
lieutenant  himself  as  Vancouver  honoured  Puget,  instead 
of  his  distinguished  kinsman,  in  which  case  this  would 
have  been  King's  Sound. 


A  TEMPESTUOUS  S'^A  209 

^^  Twenty  miles  or  m.  beyond  Point  Romanoff  we  leach 
'the  canal,"  the  mouth  of  which  is  mariced  by  a  beacon, 
leading  by  a  winding  course  unto  St.  Michael's  Bay! 
This  natural  watercourse,  on  the  Improvement  of  which 
the  government  .nrnt  a  good  deal  of  money,  affords  a 
safe  and  easy  passage  for  small  craft,  and  avoids  the 
worst  part  of  the  sea  passage  to  St.  Michael,  but  it  is 
not  used  by  steamboats  because  of  its  narrowness.  "We 
don't  need  it  when  it's  smooth  and  we  can't  use  it  when 
It's  rough,"  a  captain  replied  to  my  inquiry.  It  is  this 
canal  that  makes  the  island  of  St.  Michael. 

The  flat-bottomed  river-boats  are  sometimes  very 
roughly  handled  on  Bering  Sea.  They  will  not  issue  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  river  if  there  be  much  wind  at  the 
time,  but  storms  spring  up  suddenly  in  these  parts,  and 
the  river  boats  are  light  and  frail  and  top-heavy,  and 
get  severe  pounding  occasionally.  There  is  a  powerful 
tugboat,  however,  kept  always  in  readiness  to  go  to  the 
assistance  of  a  steamboat.  Either  inside  or  outside  of 
Stuart  Island  (another  of  Cook's  names)  we  pass  to  St 
Michael's  Island,  a  barren,  treeless,  volcanic  land  cov- 
ered with  tundra,  and  partly  around  the  island  to  its 
port. 

Ocean-going  vessels  cannot  put  into  the  port  of  St. 
Michael,  but  must  anchor  a  mile  or  so  off  shore.  Barges 
are  then  towed  out  to  them  and  the  cargo  discharged, 
and  the  barges  are  towed  back  to  be  picked  up  and 
pushed  ahead  by  the  river-steamboats;  all  of  which  can 
only  be  done  in  calm  weather.  The  place  is  evidently, 
therefore,  not  a  convenient  port,  but  it  is  the  best  there 
is  in  all  these  parts,  and  it  serves. 


I 
il 


'i:l1 


ill 


2IO 


ST.  MICHAEL 


>,! 


m 


When  the  White  Pau  and  Yukon  Company  bought 
out  the  Northern  Navigation  Company  (which  wai  the 
navigating  end  of  the  Northern  Commercial  Company) 
in  1914,  and  thus  secured  the  monopoly  of  the  whole 
river  from  its  head  to  its  mouth,  its  policy  was  to  send 
all  possible  traffic  by  the  upper  route;  and  some  of  its 
hi  officials  announced  that  they  would  "wipe  St. 
Michael  off  the  map."  But  they  found  that  the  rail- 
road could  not  compete  against  their  own  water-borne 
tonnage,  and  that  St.  Michael  was  indispensable  to  any 
economical  handling  of  the  Alaskan  freight  problem.  It 
is  still  on  the  map  at  the  old  place,  with  all  its  old  draw- 
backs. 

A  government  railway  operated  without  regard  to 
profit  and  loss  might,  it  is  true,  lay  down  at  some  point 
of  the  interior,  on  navigable  water,  all  freights  required, 
at  a  rate  water-borne  traffic  could  not  meet.  There 
would  still  remain  the  need  of  distribution,  for  which  the 
river  traffic  of  a  fleet  of  steamboats  would  be  necessary, 
but  St.  Michael  would  be  of  very  little  importance  for 
a  while.  Sooner  or  later,  however,  the  maintenance  of 
such  a  railway  at  the  public  cost  would  become  too  irk- 
some a  burden,  and  the  road  would  be  leased  or  put 
upon  a  commercial  basis.  The  moment  that  was  done 
the  river  fleet  would  go  to  the  sea  instead  of  to  the  rail- 
road for  its  cargoes,  and  St.  Michael  woulu  be  "on  the 
map"  again. 

When  the  Russian  American  Company  was  under 
the  able  and  high-minded  administration  of  Baron  von 
Wrangell,  Michael  Tebenkoff  was  sent  to  establish  a 


RUSSIAN  COLONIAL   LIFE  j,, 

pott  on  Norton  Sound,  and  in  1833  he  built  Redoubt 
St.  Michael,  putting  it  under  the  protection,  one  tur- 
mi«e»,  of  his  patron  archangel. 

St.  Michael  wa.  thus  the  second  Russian  post  on 
Bering  Sea.  for  Nushagak.  in  Bristol  Bay,  had  been 
established  in  1818  and  has  a  history  of  upward  of 
eighty  years. 

Some  of  the  old  Russian  log  buildings  still  stand;  a 
little  octagonal  blockhouse,  or  bastion,  on  a   point  of 
rock  with  diminutive,  rusty  cannon,  arousing  the  interest 
of  all  visitors.    There  were  occasions,  so  the  tradition 
runs,  when  the  fort  was  needed  and  the  "six-pounders" 
were  effective.    Life  at  the  place  wa.  slow  and  lazy,  one 
judges,  from  the  references  of  those  who  touched  there 
the  factors  or  agents  despotic  and  often  brutal,  and  the 
Russian  workmen,  convicts  shipped  hither  instead  of  to 
Siberia,  were  of  a  class  who  could  be  controlled  in  no 
other  way.    Master  and  men  alike  were  grossly  addit  -cd 
to  drunkenness  whenever  the  necessary  liquor  was  ob- 
tainable.    It  is  rather  amusing  to  read  the  mutual  accu- 
sations of  the  Russian  American  Company  against  the 
Hudson  s  Bay  Company,  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany agamst  the  Russian  American  Company   of  selling 
liquor  to  natives,  when  neither  seems  to  have  had  any 
scruples  on  that  head  whatever.    And  when  Dall  was 
finally  leaving  St.  Michael,  when  the  sway  of  both  com- 
panies was  terminated  and  the  territory  of  Alaska  had 
been  transferred  to  the  government  of  the  United  States 
he  saw  a  small  schooner  lying  in  the  bay,  and  writes  as 
follows:  "To  the  eastward  a  bidarra  was  puUing  for  the 


! 


<  * 


212 


ST.  MICHAEL'S  LATER  DAYS 


canal,   and   rather  seemed   to   avoid   u,     T,t.- 

St....  official.  „  sS,  "       ""  "»'""  °f  ""  ™'«'l 

The  post  at  St  MfrhS  ">y«enously  eluded. 

P  =.1  at  St.  Michael  was  maintained  by  the  Ab,l.,n 

"■""■""«'  •!«  company  ,„  „„|,  "  »~"l  "■ 

■ky  b„„gh,  abou,  a  corresponding  and  „.„  g„„„ 


'I 

I" 
I' 

* 


ti 


^'1 


im 


^^! 


A  WONDERFUL  REVIVAL  213 

development  here— the  Klondike  stampede.  At  a  stroke 
the  desolate  coast  of  Bering  Sea  became  a  highway  of  the 
nations.  The  available  shipping  of  the  Pacific  coast  was 
soon  exhausted  and  ships  from  the  Atlantic  were  sent 
round  the  Horn.  The  quays  of  every  port  on  the  Pacific 
coast  were  ahum  with  Alaskan  business.  Once  started 
for  the  north,  the  tide  of  traffic  divided  into  two  streams, 
and  one  took  the  "inside  passage"  for  Skagway,  and  the 
other  too^  the  "outside  passage"  for  St.  Michael.  All 
the  heavy  merchandise,  all  the  stocks  of  goods  for  trad- 
ing, as  well  as  many  of  the  individual  venturers  went  by 
way  of  St.  Michael.  The  shipyards  of  the  Pacific  coast 
were  crowded  with  orders;  the  Morans  at  Seattle  started 
building  a  fleet  of  river-boats,  some  of  which  went  up 
under  their  own  power,  and  others  were  tugged  up  to 
the  port  of  the  Yukon. 

At  St.  Michael  itself  the  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany was  not  slow  to  realise  the  good  fortune  whicl  had 
thrown  all  this  business  into  its  lap.  Shipyards  were 
laid  out,  machine-shops  were  installed,  and  rapid  build- 
ing of  river-craft  was  begun;  stores  and  warehouses  and 
dwellings  and  a  hotel  were  built. 

Other  companies  were  organised  —  the  Alaska  Ex- 
ploration Company,  the  Alaska  Development  Company, 
the  Seattle-Yukon  Transportation  Company,  and  I  know 
not  how  many  more;  but  the  only  one  that  sur- 
vived and  for  years  maintained  a  rivalry  with  the  origi- 
nal Alaska  Company  in  river-steamboats  and  in  trading- 
posts  was  a  Chicago  concern,  the  North  American  Trad- 
ing and  Transportation  Company.    There,  across  the 


i 

i\ 

1 

f 

If 

m 

1 

'ii 


I " ';'.  I 


214  D'^CLINE  AND  FALL 

bay  of  St.  Michael,  was  its  establishment— a  town  by  it- 
self, with  hotel  and  machine-shops  and  stores  and  ware- 
houses and  all  the  usual  accessories.  To-day  that  great 
plant  across  the  bay  is  completely  shut  up  and  deserted, 
and  much  of  the  plant  on  this  side  is  disused. 

And  here  and  over  there  alike  lie  the  abandoned 
steamboats  of  the  respective  "boneyards."  There  is  the 
Isom,  the  largest  and  finest  boat  that  ever  floated  on 
the  Yukon  River— far  too  large  and  expensive  she  proved 
—and  a  number  of  other  vessels;  and  here  is  ti'.e  Han- 
nah, one  of  three  sister  packets  that  plied  to  Dawson 
and  back  so  long  as  it  was  profitable  to  do  so,  and  sev- 
eral more.  I  have  not  counted  them  lately,  but  there 
were  eight  or  nine  a  few  years  ago.  It  does  not  follow 
that  a  boat  on  the  beach  is  a  boat  that  is  abandoned,  of 
course;  all  the  boats  are  pulled  out  every  winter,  but 
year  by  year  less  are  launched  in  the  summer,  and  every 
year  that  a  boat  lies  on  the  shore  makes  it  less  likely  it 
will  ever  displace  water  again. 

The  army  post  at  St.  Michael— Fort  Liscum— adds 
to  the  business  and  the  attractiveness  of  the  port,  but 
it  is  perhaps  the  least  desirable  place  of  residence  of  all 
the  Alaskan  posts.  A  wet  summer,  with  mosquitoes 
that  breed  in  the  soaking  tundra  by  millions,  and  a 
stormy  winter,  with  prevailing  high  winds  in  place  of 
the  "strong  cold"  of  the  interior,  and  no  trees  to  break 
their  force,  such  are  the  usual  seasons  on  this  barren 
coast.  Plank  sidewalks  line  the  streets,  extend  across 
the  tundra  to  the  army  post,  and  stretch  up  and  down 
and  to  and  fro  about  the  compound,  but  where  the  plank 


ESKIMO  TYPES  2,5 

sidewalks  end,  the  summer  walking  ends  in  general 
To  step  off  them  is  to  step  ankle-deep  in  the  wet  moss. 

I  spoke  of  the  coastwise  Eskimos  in  high  terms,  and 
we  are  now  in  their  territory.  The  visitor  will  see  them 
on  the  streets,  or  leaning  on  the  counters  of  the  stores, 
or  beaching  or  launching  their  boats  on  the  water-front, 
clad  in  dirty  drill  parkies,  or  in  fur  parkies  from  which 
most  of  the  hair  is  rubbed  off,  and  shod  in  mukluks;  and 
their  handiwork  in  the  shape  of  carved  walrus  ivories 
and  baskets  and  fur  boots  he  will  see  exposed  for  sale  in 
every  place  where  anything  at  all  is  sold.  Should  he 
possess  the  wild  desire  to  purchase  ivory  cribbage-boards 
which  most  visitors  display,  there  is  probably  no  other 
place  on  earth-unless  it  be  Nome  across  the  Sound- 
where  there  is  such  a  variety  to  choose  from. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  would  take  the  Eskimos  who 
frequent  St.  Michael  and  Nome,  some  of  whom  have 
been  mfected  with  the  white  man's  vices,  as  representa- 
tives of  their  race.  Natives  of  any  kind  who  hang 
around  a  white  man's  town  are  not  usually  the  best 
specimens  of  the  stamina  and  virtue  of  primitive  men. 
I  would  go  to  Unalaklik,  sixty  miles  or  so  along  the 
shore  of  Norton  Sound,  the  salt-water  end  of  the  Kaltag 
portage,  and  there  I  think  any  one  who  has  carefully 
observed  the  Indians  and  Eskimos  all  down  the  Yukon 
would  find  a  people  superior  in  many  ways  to  any  he 
has  met.  Even  in  the  .ummer  camps  around  St.  Michael 
and  Nome  the  visitor  is  struck  with  the  industry  which 
these  people  display.  Every  inmate  of  a  tent  will  be  at 
work,  the  father  carving  a  piece  of  ivory  or  wood,  the 


i'l 


2l6 


ESKIMO  INDUSTRY 


.■* 


mother  making  mukluks,  or  fur  boots,  a  large  girl  beat- 
ing out  and  twisting  caribou  sinew  into  the  incomparable 
strong  thread  with  which  the  furs  and  the  boots  are  sewn, 
and  that  I  wish  every  tailor  in  the  United  States  were 
compelled  to  use  for  sewing  buttons  on  with;  even  the 
children  will  be  whittling  bows  and  arrows,  the  whole 
family  occupied  in  some  productive  way.  I  have  been 
struck  by  this  admirable  trait  wherever  I  have  seen 
these  people.  And  there  is  always  a  smile  for  the  visi- 
tor; they  are  a  light-hearted,  good-humoured  people, 
easily  amused  and  thoroughly  enjoying  a  very  simple 
jest;  far  from  being  "the  shuddering  tenants  of  the 
frigid  zone"  that  Goldsmith  imagined  them — winter  or 
summer. 

The  average  Eskimo  is  undersized  compared  with 
the  average  white  man,  but  they  are  by  no  means  the 
squat,  diminutive  folk  they  are  commonly  supposed, 
and  individuals  of  full  stature  are  not  rare  amongst  them. 
They  are  well-made  and  often  graceful  in  physique,  with 
small  hands  and  feet.  The  nose  is  generally  rather  flat, 
but  in  some  is  well  bridged  and  shapely,  and  the  mouth, 
while  commonly  large,  is  in  youth  so  well  filled  wi'.h 
white,  gleaming  teeth,  so  easily  revealed  in  an  attractive 
smile,  that  its  size  is  not  conspicuous.  I  have  seen  in- 
dividuals that  I  think  would  be  called  handsome  by  any 
standard. 

These  Eskimos  are  essentially  navigators;  they  are 
as  aquatic  as  ducks;  the  centaur  was  not  a  more  intimate 
union  between  a  man  and  a  horse  than  the  Eskimo  is 
between  a  man  and  a  boat;  not  many  of  them,  I  think. 


4' 


I    ii 


1 1 


'!» 


U 


u 


NATURAL   NAVIGATORS 


ai7 


can  s\yim,  yet  they  are  true  amphibia,  as  much  at  home 
on  water  as  on  land.  With  nothing  but  a  thin  integu- 
ment between  them  and  death  from  drowning,  they  ven- 
ture far  out  from  land  and  pursue  and  icill  the  seal  and 
even  the  whale  on  the  ice-encumbered  waters.  It  is 
admirable  to  see  men  mastering  such  a  savage  environ- 
ment, wringing  a  subsistence  from  such  an  inhospitable 
land,  such  treacherous  and  perilous  seas;  with  nothing 
save  what  their  hands  have  made  from  the  meagre  ma- 
terial those  hands  could  find  around  them,  asserting  and 
maintaining  the  supremacy  of  man.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  me  that  human  nature  takes  a  new  dignity 
from  the  life  of  the  Eskimos.  Naked  in  the  arctic  re- 
gions, man  still  rises  superior  to  his  environment,  still 
adapts  himself  to  it  or  constrains  it  to  his  needs. 

Nor  is  the  kyak,  or  even  the  oomiak  the  extent  of 
Eskimo  boat-building  to-day.  At  Unalaklik  they  con- 
struct excellent  schooners  and  prove  themselves  first- 
class  shipwrights. 

Greatly  reduced  in  numbers  as  they  have  been  by 
the  causes  that  are  almost  invariably  set  in  motion  when 
the  white  man  makes  acquaintance  with  a  primitive 
people  (a  paraphrase  which  my  readers  will  have  no 
trouble  in  reducing  to  if  lowest  terms),  there  is  rea-on  to 
take  hope  that  the  diminution  is  checked  in  general  and 
that  in  places  the  balance  is  turning  the  other  way.  I 
have  allowed  myself  perfect  frankness  in  speaking  of  the 
government's  neglect  of  the  Yukon  Indians;  let  me  be 
equally  frank  to  say  that  the  introduction  of  reindeer 
amongst  the  Eskimos  of  the  coast  has  been  a  great  relief 


I 

I 

i 
:  I 

■    I'! 


n 


m 


m 


2l8 


THE  REINDEER  SCHEME 


!l 


i 


«iii 


Fti. 


and  assistance  to  these  people;  yet  I  will  add  that  I  doubt 
if  Congress  would  ever  have  appropriated  the  initial  sum 
requisite  for  the  purchase  and  importation  of  the  rein- 
deer had  it  been  intended,  in  the  first  instance,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Eskimos.  It  was  the  plight  of  the  white 
men  in  Dawson  in  the  winter  of  1898  that  set  on  foot  the 
impracticable  and  foolish  plan  of  sending  in  relief  by 
reindeer,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  plan  left  the  gov- 
ernment with  the  reindeer  on  its  hands,  as  the  man  in 
song  was  left  with  the  elephant  on  his  hands;  then 
Doctor  Sheldon  Jackson  saw  his  chance  and  stepped  in, 
and  the  reindeer  were  secured  for  the  Eskimos. 

They  are  a  people  that  any  nation  may  be  glad  to 
have  fringing  the  inhospitable  waste  places  of  its  arctic 
coast,  living,  as  I  hold  it  true  in  the  main  of  the  Yukon 
Indians  al;o,  where  no  one  else  will  live;  a  picturesque 
and  interesting  and  harmless  people  with  a  place  of  their 
own  amongst  the  races  of  mankind,  and  a  right  they 
have  bravely  won  to  exist  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 


PART  II 


;,' 


ii ; 


ii 


111 


VI  'H 


I 


'It 


^1! 


I' 


4 
i 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  PORCUPINE  AND  THE  CHANDALAR 
The  Porcupine  River 

The  Porcupine  is  the  largest  tributary  which  the 
Yukon  receives  within  the  region  of  the  Flats,  and  one 
of  its  most  considerable  in  general.  By  its  affluent  the 
Old  Crow  it  brings  down  the  most  northerly  water  which 
the  Yukon  receives,  and  is  thus  earlier  in  closing  and 
later  in  opening  than  the  great  river  itself.  Its  running 
ice  terminates  the  navigation  of  the  Yukon  in  the  au- 
tumn and  delays  it  in  the  early  summer,  so  that  "Is  the 
Porcupine  throwing  ice  i"'  is  an  important  aueetion  late 
and  soon  in  the  season. 

The  Porcupine  River  was  known  to  white  men  before 
the  middle  and  upper  Yukon,  and,  as  has  been  mentioned 
before,  was  the  highway  by  which  the  middle  river  was 
reached.  John  Bell,  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  descended  a  river  tributary  to  the  Porcupine 
that  now  bears  his  name  in  1842,  and  in  1844  descended 
the  Porcupine  to  its  mouth.  He  was  beyond  doubt  the 
first  white  man  to  see  the  Porcupine  River,  and  the  first 
white  man  to  see  the  Yukon  above  Nulato,  though  I 
cannot  find  that  he  did  more  than  catch  sight  of  the 
latter  river  at  the  confluence. 

I  can  summon  readily  before  my  eyes  the  large  map 


1 1 


m:\ 


!  ,   '1 


322 


WASTE   PLACES 


;.        .1 


it 

I  .    ' 
I 


I 


M 


m 


of  North  America  which  was  in  the  atlas  at  my  school. 
On  it  the  Porcupine  River  was  laid  down  to  its  junction 
with  the  Yukon  (from  Bell's  or  Murray's  reports  as  I 
now  judge),  but  the  latter  river  was  drawn  thereafter 
flowing  far  to  the  northwest  to  a  mouth  in  the  Arctic 
Ocean  east  of  Point  Barrow,  marked  "Colville  or  You- 
con,"  and  I  have  before  me  at  this  moment,  in  one  of  the 
"Franklin  search"  books  of  the  sixties,  a  map  in  which 
that  mouth  is  so  designated. 

What  made  the  chief  impression  upon  my  young 
mind  in  that  map  of  the  school  atlas  was  the  great  blank 
space  containing  three  names  only:  "La  Pierre's  House," 
"Rampart  House,"  and  "Fort  Youcon"  (three  posts  of 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company),  and  what  strikes  me  as 
most  interesting  to-day  is  that  the  same  space  holds 
only  those  three  names.  La  Pierre's  House  is  quite 
abandoned  this  long  while,  and  the  company  is  gone 
from  all  of  them,  but  those  three  names  still  stand  alone 
aero  s  ten  degrees  of  longitude  as  they  stood  fifty  years 
ago.  The  visitor  is  come  to  the  waste  places  of  the 
earth  so  far  as  the  works  of  man  are  concerned. 

It  was  in  the  early  summer  of  1910  that  the  Pelican 
made  her  first  voyage  up  the  Porcupine.  She  was  brave 
in  the  new  paint,  without  and  within,  of  her  spring  over- 
hauling, her  white  sides  gleaming  in  the  perpetual  sun- 
shine as  she  ploughed  the  sparkling  water;  and  her  en- 
gines running  with  that  purring,  sewing-mach'ne  sound 
that  betokens  recent  tuning-up  of  sparking  levers  and 
exhaust-valves.  Her  tanks  full  of  gasolene,  her  lockers 
full  of  grub,  her  cushions  recovered,  her  curtains  washed. 


MOTOR-BOAT  FITTINGS  223 

her  mosquito-bars  carefully  repaired,  some  new  books 
on  her  little  library  shelf,  and  some  new  aluminum 
utensils  m  her  galley,  whcr,  ..he  took  the  bishop  aboard 
and  ran  his  purple  i  ,;,mant  up  ihe  flagstaff  that  sur- 
mounts her  cabin,  she  eit  iierself  n-.t  unfit  episcopal  equi- 
page  for  Arctic  waters,  ohc  uh^rishes  a  little  store  of 
napery,  china,  and  plate,  with  which  her  bare  board  is 
covered  and  her  graniteware  and  tin  are  replaced  when 
she  carries  distinguished  passengers. 

A  craft,  in  which  one  takes  personal  pride,  is,  I  sup- 
pose, always  a  source  of  personal  expense.  There  is  this 
httle  device  and  that  little  convenience  attractively  set 
forth  in  the  pages  of  motor-boat  periodicals,  or  the 
catalogue  of  dealers'  "accessories"  (a  word  that  covers 
a  multitude  of  sins);  there  is  continually  swelling  and 
soaring  an  ambition  for  more  efl^cient  and  less  trouble- 
some performance,  that  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon 
and  takes  new  Hight  with  every  new  installation;  and 
when  the  limits  of  an  appropriation  that  covers  little 
more  than  the  gasolene  supply  are  long  overpassed,  the 
master  of  such  a  craft  finds  himself  still  spending. 

The  reproach  of  the  Pelican  is  that  with  eight  feet  of 
beam  she  is  only  thirty-two  feet  long  instead  of  forty; 
and  that  is  not  the  fault  of  the  builders,  who  indeed 
pleaded  for  the  greater  length,  but  of  the  White  Pass 
Railway  Company  whose  flat  cars  are  only  thirty-two 
feet  long  and  who  would  not  guarantee  her  safe  delivery 
over  their  tortuous  mountain  road  if  she  exceeded  that 
length— of  that  company,  and  of  those  who  deemed  it 
necessary  to  send  her  in  by  Skagway  and  the  upper  river 


I' 


'♦4 


224 


SPRING   REVERIES 


instead  of  by  St.  Michael  and  the  lower.  She  would  be 
a  faster  and  a  handier  as  well  as  a  much  more  convenient 
boat  did  her  length  bear  juster  proportion  to  her  beam. 

But  such  as  she  is  she  has  been  of  long  and  useful  and 
comfortable  service.  With  caches  of  gasolene  and  lubri- 
cating oil  at  half  a  dozen  places  along  the  river,  and  a 
tank  capacity  for  a  week's  cruising,  she  gives  a  range  oi 
travel  quite  out  of  the  reach  of  scheduled  steamboats, 
and  one  sometimes  exults  at  the  unconstrained  mobility 
she  permits.  The  Tanana  is  my  wash-pot,  over  the 
Koyukuk  will  I  cast  out  my  shoe,  upon  the  Iditarod  will 
I  triumph !  I  am  sometimes  tempted  to  vaunt,  in  vain- 
glorious moments  at  the  opening  of  the  season,  when  the 
fever  of  the  Arctic  spring  stirs  the  blood  and  the  sweet 
sound  of  lapping  water  once  more  delights  the  ear  and 
the  great  fleecy  clouds  of  summer  begin  again  to  float 
in  the  blue  sky.  Where  else  do  waterways  open  such 
vast  country  to  travel  ?  where  else  could  one  be  so  foot- 
loose and  free  ? 

Such  moments  have  their  charm — and  their  peril. 
They  are  almost  invariably  followed  by  mishap.  Should 
I  be  steering  when  I  take  such  flights,  at  just  about  that 
time  the  fly-wheel  right  behind  me  will  very  likely  begin 
deluging  the  engine-room  with  water  from  the  bilge,  and 
the  shower  must  be  endured  until  a  landing  can  be  made. 
I  know  nothing  better  suited  to  dampen  the  ardour  of 
self-satisfaction  than  a  protracted  shower-bath  of  bilge- 
water.  Or,  lost  in  distant  prospects  of  waterways  I 
would  traverse,  I  find  myself  taking  the  boat  where  she 
has  no  present  water  to  float  in,  and  the  labouring  of  the 


BLACK   RIVER 


22J 


engine  arouses  me  from  my  reverie  perhaps  just  in  time, 
perhaps  too  late,    o  avoid  grounding. 

I  have  spoken  of  her  spicii-and-span  condition  at  the 
opening  of  the  summer.  Alas!  for  her  paint  and  her 
finery  when  she  has  cruised  a  few  weeks  in  these  dirty 
waters,  tying  up  to  mud-banks  in  wet  weather  and  sub- 
miti:ing  to  hooted  feet  that  bring  the  sand  and  the  muck 
with  them;  when  she  has  been  aground  a  time  or  two  and 
has  been  sparred  and  pried  off  with  scant  regard  for  her 
gleaming  white  sides ! — she  soon  looks  as  rusty  and  as 
soiled  as  though  she  had  not  been  repainted  since  she 
was  built. 

But  just  now  she  is  in  good  fettle,  fresh  from  the 
ways,  with  a  clean  river  to  navigate;  and  we  hope  to 
bring  her  back  from  the  Rampart  House  for  her  down- 
Yukon  voyage,  looking  little  worse  than  she  does  now. 

We  drop  down  a  mile  or  so  from  Fort  Yukon  to  the 
entrance  of  a  little  crooked  slough  that  does  no  more 
than  afford  passage,  and  so  slip  into  the  Porcupine 
River  and  turn  our  bows  up  that  stream.  Clustered 
around  tie  mouth.-  of  the  Porcupine  are  encampments 
of  the  Fort  Yukon  folk  on  all  sides,  ready  for  the  run  of 
salmon  that  any  day  may  bring  now,  and  here  and  there 
fish-wheels  are  already  revolving  and  creaking. 

Within  twenty-five  miles  we  pass  the  mouth  of  the 
Big  Black  River  coming  in  on  our  right,  which  has  al- 
ready united  with  the  Little  Black  a  few  miles  away, 
and  so  soon  as  we  have  passed  it  are  conscious  of  a 
diminution  in  the  water  we  are  navigating.  The  Black 
River  is  an  important  stream,  navigable  for  more  than 


'\ 


.1 

It, 


^ 


!<  fl 


f 


iiQ 


\t 


I'i  u  'i 


;li 


Z26 


FLY  PLAGUE 


l'>  I'!! 


two  hundred  miles,  and  it  lias  two  Indian  villages  situ- 
ated upon  it,  at  one  of  which  (one  hundred  miles  up)  a 
white  trader  maintains  a  store.  The  season  has  been 
dry,  as  the  early  summer  often  is  in  this  region,  and  the 
river  is  low,  and  the  heat  of  these  first  days  of  July  is 
great.  With  the  failure  of  a  little  breeze  and  the  over- 
casting of  th^  sky,  the  weather  grows  oppressively  sultry 
and  a  swarm  of  horse-flies,  or  moose-flies  as  they  are 
called  in  these  parts,  makes  appearance — large  venomous 
insects  that  bite  a  piece  out  of  one's  flesh  when  they 
alight. 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  we  have  a  popular 
magazine  aboard  with  one  of  those  scolding,  oracular 
articles  which  such  magazines  affect,  by  some  eminent 
or  nearly-eminent  scientist  (much  heralded  and  belauded 
in  a  prefatory  italicised  note)  on  the  subject  of  Flies. 
Flies  are  the  chief  contaminators  of  food  and  drink,  the 
chief  disseminators  of  infectious  disease,  in  short,  the 
chief  enemies  of  the  human  race.  He  does  not  say  thai 
their  god  Beelzebub  is  the  devil  himself  instead  of  some 
lesser  fiend,  because  he  has  of  course  gone  far  beyond 
devils,  but  he  is  most  severe  and  resolute  in  his  denun- 
ciation of  flies,  and  almost  as  severe  and  resolute  against 
those  whose  indifference  tolerates  them.  So  long  as  he 
confines  himself  to  generalities  he  is  well  enough  of  his 
kind  and  succeeds  in  lashing  himself  into  a  fine  scientific 
fury.  Displaying  no  indifferent  toleration  ourselves, 
but  "swatting"  right  and  left  until  the  floor  of  the  cabin 
is  gradually  covered  with  dead,  we  are  disposed  if  not  to 
agree  with  him  at  least  not  to  make  issue  with  him. 


RIVER  SCENERY 


227 


But  presently  descending  just  as  dogmatically  to  details, 
and  roaring  against  the  negligence  of  grooms  and  hostlers, 
he  declares  roundly  that  horse-flies  can  breed  in  nothing 
but  horse  manure.  And  here  are  we  annoyed  by  them 
almost  beyond  endurance— and  not  an  horse  within  an 
hundred  miles  !  A  little  while  since  we  saw  a  bear  prowl- 
ing the  bank  and  the  bishop  suggests  that  perhaps  they 
breed  in  bear  manure  also. 

Fifty  or  fifty-five  miles  above  Fort  Yukon  the  Sheen- 
jik  or  Big  Salmon  is  received  on  the  right  bank,  coming 
down  from  the  north,  where  it  interlocks  with  tributaries 
of  the  east  fork  of  the  Chandalar.  The  Sheenjik  is  one 
of  the  Porcupine's  most  important  tributaries,  and  a 
good  deal  of  fur  comes  every  year  out  of  the  country  it 
drains. 

The  Flats  are  monotonous  whether  on  the  great 
river  or  on  its  branches;  we  wind  around  the  mud-banks 
thickly  set  with  spruce  and  willow,  eagerly  looking  for 
the  first  glimpse  of  the  mountains,  but  all  day  passes 
and  our  horizon  of  tree  tops  is  still  unbroken.  Here  and 
there  is  a  native  camp,  the  white  of  the  tent  showing 
pleasantly  amidst  the  sylvan  sameness;  soon  the  dull 
red  of  the  split  salmon  will  add  the  characteristic  touch 
of  summer  colour. 

The  caving  banks  throw  their  trees  into  the  stream, 
now  on  this  side,  now  on  that,  sweepers  and  snags  call 
for  watchful  steering,  the  crossings  are  numerous  and  ill- 
defined  and  one  must  read  water  with  some  readiness 
and  certainty  if  one  is  to  be  sure  of  always  finding  water. 

For  fifteen  hours  we  run  without  a  stop,  save  touching 


::ii' 


llli: 


228 


FALSE   ECONOMIES 


['H 


i*  U' 


the  bank  once  or  twice  to  speak  to  some  Indians,  and 
then  tie  up  for  sleep.  This  is  our  regular  schedule  and 
it  allows  of  continuous  journeys  without  undue  fatigue. 
An  hour  or  so  after  tying  up  is  spent  in  attention  to  the 
engine  and  preparation  for  repose.  Immediately  upon 
stopping,  while  the  cylinders  are  yet  hot,  a  liberal  dose  of 
coal-oil  is  introduced  into  each  of  them  through  the 
pet-cocks,  and  the  fly-wheel  thrown  over  once  or  twice. 
When  the  boat  had  completed  six  seasons'  work  the 
engine  was  overhauled  and  the  pistons  were  withdrawn 
from  the  cylinders  for  the  first  time.  The  complete 
absence  of  carbon  deposit  upon  the  pistons,  which  was 
then  disclosed,  was  due,  I  think,  to  this  habitual  dosing 
with  coal-oil. 

Two  pneumatic  cushions  in  the  cabin  afl^ord  com- 
fortable beds  for  half  the  boat's  company;  two  others, 
carried  deflated,  must  be  blown  up  each  night  to  accom- 
modate the  remainder,  and  that  takes  some  time  and 
lung  power.  I  have  bought  pumps — hand-pumps  and 
foot-pumps;  they  last  a  few  days  or  a  week  or  two,  and 
then  they  get  out  of  order  or  the  connecting  tube  breaks, 
and  they  are  cast  aside  in  favour  of  the  lungs  and  the 
lips.  Why  is  it  that  devices  such  as  this — and  a  thou- 
sand others  of  common  domestic  utility — are  so  cheaply 
and  poorly  made.'  Take  a  can-opener  as  a  more  com- 
mon instance,  or  a  "Dover"  egg-beater — why  is  it  that 
they  must  be  so  flimsily  constructed  that  they  can  be 
sold  at  retail  for  ten  cents .?  A  can-opener  is  a  tool 
quite  as  important  nowadays  as  a  chisel;  a  Dover  egg- 
beater  is  quite  as  important  as  a  brace  for  a  wood-drill 


COOKING  STANDARDS  jjg 

and    mechanically    much    more    intricate;   why    should 
they  not  be  as  carefully  and  solidly  constructed  ?   Surely 
there  are  enough  people  who  would  prefer  to  pay  fifty 
cents  or  a  dollar  once,  rather  than  ten  cents  a  dozen 
t.mes  over   to  justify  making  and  selling  some  of  them 
of  tof,l  quahty  and  price,  instead  of  "notion"  quality 
and  pnce.     Indeed,  is  not  one  of  the  more  important 
domest.c  reforms  of  the  day  the  construction  of  domestic 
implements  with  as   much  care  as  the  implements  of 
other  handicrafts?     Would  it  not  be  tim.  and  money 
saved  and  efficiency  gained  to  sweep  away  the  whole 
five-and-ten-cent"   junk   that    multiplies   in   kitchens, 
and  replace  it  with  real  tools  ? 

When  a  man  finds  that  he  has  to  cook,  not  only  for 
himself  but  for  others,  as  most  men  find  sooner  or  later 
who  hve  and  travel  in  the  mterior  of  Alaska,  he  is  quite 
l.kely  to  decide  that  he  will  cook  as  well  as  possible  in- 
stead of  being  a  mere  "grub-spoiler."     If  the  Due  de 
Richelieu   invented  mayonnaise,   it  cannot  be  beneath 
any  one's  dignity  to  make  it  who  can  procure  a  reason- 
ably fresh  egg;  and.  in  the  main,  the  difference  between 
good  cookery  and  poor  cookery  is  a  little  time  and  pains 
But  whenever  a  man  finds  himself  under  the  necessity  of 
cooking  he  becomes  impatient  with  the  unsubstantiality 
ot  the  available  implements. 

The  cooking  on  the  Pelican  is  done  in  a  little  galley 
furnished  with  two  "Primus"  stoves-and  it  is  surpris- 
ing how  much  can  be  accomplished  v.ith  a  Primus 
stove.  This  admirable  Swedish  stove,  used  by  Nansen 
twenty-five  years  ago  and  long  employed  in  the  north 


»l|' 


1 


I 


i 


230 


A  NAVIGATOR'S  LIFE 


h' 


f\:W. 


seems  only  recently  to  have  been  discovered  in  the 
United  States.  I  saw  shop-windows  full  of  them,  as  in 
the  introduction  of  some  new  device,  with  "demon- 
strators" making  public  exposition  of  their  use,  in  New 
York  and  other  cities  when  last  I  crossed  the  continent. 
The  cooking  is  done  and  the  meals  are  eaten  while  the 
boat  runs,  so  that  when  she  ties  up  there  is  naught  but 
the  attention  to  the  engine  and  the  preparation  for  the 
night  to  occupy  our  time.  The  beds  are  blown  up,  the 
blankets  extracted  from  the  lockers,  the  mosquito- 
curtains  set  up,  our  prayers  are  said,  and  we  turn  in  for 
eight  hours'  sleep;  three  persons  in  the  cabin  and  one 
in  the  engine-room.  The  windows  of  the  boat  are 
provided  with  blinds,  but  it  is  hard  to  darken  the  cabin 
in  the  middle  of  summer  and  at  the  same  time  provide 
sufficient  air  for  ventilation. 

When  the  alarm-clock  announces  the  expiration  of 
the  eight  hours,  the  boy  in  the  engine-room  gets  up, 
piles  his  bedding  and  his  deflated  pneumatic  mattress 
into  the  cabin,  starts  his  engine  and  casts  loose;  and  the 
journey  is  resumed  within  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  at  most. 
The  man  sleeping  on  the  floor  in  the  cabin  next  arises, 
deflates  his  mattress,  gathers  up  both  beds,  and,  before 
doing  anything  else,  starts  the  Primus  stove  for  a  cup  of 
coffee  all  round.  Then,  one  by  one  the  others  arise, 
toilets  are  made  at  the  little  lavatory,  the  bedding  is 
stowed  in  the  lockers,  and  breakfast  is  taken  in  hand. 
If  the  weather  be  fine  the  after-deck  affords  a  pleasant 
fresh  place  in  the  early  morning,  and  when  the  first 
meal  of  the  day  is  ready  there  is  usually  appetite  for  it. 


TROUBLES  OF  NAVIGATION  231 

Breakfast  eaten,  one  of  us  goes  forward  and  relieves 
the  man  at  the  wheel  that  he  may  make  his  toilet  and 
eat,  and  that  is  the  regular  routine  on  a  long  cruise. 

If  the  weather  be  bright  and  cleai  we  shall  come  to 
our  first  glimpse  of  th :  ilisi  mt  mountains  within  seven- 
teen or  eighteen  hours  of  our  start,  and  one's  heart  is 
always  cheered,  winter  or  summer,  at  the  prospect 
they  afford  of  emerging  from  the  Flats.  In  two  or  three 
hours  more  we  pass  the  "Schuman  house,"  one  of  the 
very  few  inhabited  cabins  we  have  seen,  and  here  is 
likely  to  be  an  encampment  of  Indians;  and  between 
five  and  six  hours'  more  travel  brings  us  to  John  Her- 
bert's house  at  the  entrance  to  the  first  ramparts  of  the 
Porcupine. 

Here  it  was,  or  hereabouts,  on  the  first  voyage  of 
the  Pelican  that  we  met  with  misadventure.  The  water 
was  low  and  it  was  often  difficult  to  judge  where  lay  the 
channel.  Coming  to  an  island  that  seemed  to  divide 
the  waters  almost  equally  we  went  up  on  the  right  hand 
only  to  find  that  there  was  not  depth  enough  to  pass. 
So  we  dropped  down  that  we  might  cross  over  and  take 
the  other  side.  But  the  boy  at  the  wheel  made  the 
crossing  too  soon,  for  a  bar  from  the  island  stretched 
far  below  it,  and  we  found  ourselves  aground,  the  swift 
water  swinging  us  broadside  on  before  we  could  ex- 
tricate ourselves.  It  does  not  take  long  for  gravel  to 
accumulate  against  the  keel  of  a  boat  lying  in  such 
position,  and  Arthur  lost  his  head  for  a  moment  and  en- 
deavoured to  dig  a  way  off  the  bar  with  the  propeller, 
advancing  and  reversing  in  rapid  succession,  without 


I 


(I 


m 


J.' 

■  m  ■ 

m 

232 


AN   INDIAN  CHIEF 


i    .1 


\\  •\ 


much  avail,  and  without  considering  what  he  was  mean- 
while doing  to  the  propeller  itself.  It  was  necessary  to 
resort  to  other  measures,  to  "peel  off  and  get  in,"  and 
two  or  three  naked  men  overboard  with  stout  poles 
managed  gradually  to  pry  her  into  water  that  would 
float  her— a  rather  chilly  job  and  rough  on  the  bare  feet. 
It  would  have  been  a  trivial  and,  in  those  days,  not  at 
all  unusual  mishap  but  for  the  abuse  of  the  propeller, 
which  was  so  blunted  and  battered  by  the  gravel  that 
thereafter  we  could  get  no  more  than  five  hundred  and 
twenty  revolutions  out  of  the  engine  instead  of  the  six- 
hundred  and  twenty  at  which  we  had  been  running— 
and  all  the  strong  .v.-ter  of  the  ramparts  yet  to  pass 
through. 

Amundsen  described  John  Herbert  twelve  years  ago 
as  "a  very  fine  fellow,  six  feet  high,  with  dark  hair  and 
u  full  moustache,"  when  he  met  him  on  his  overland  trip 
from  Herschel  Island  to  Eagle  to  telegraph  the  news  that 
he  had  made  the  northwest  passage;  and  the  descrip- 
tion fits  him  yet.  He  is  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of 
the  race  in  physique  and  character  and  is  now  the  chief 
of  the  Indians  centring  about  Fort  Yukon.  His  house 
on  the  Porcupine  is  finely  situated  with  a  noble  outlook, 
but  is  little  used  nowadays  save  at  times  in  winter  as 
a  trapping-cabin. 

Here  the  river  emerges  finally  from  the  mountainous 
region  through  which  it  cuts  its  way  for  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  or  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  miles  to 
debouch  upon  the  Flats,  and  as  we  enter  the  portals 
through  which  it  is  flowing  the  banks  swell  up  in  bold 


PICTURESQUE  SCENERY  233 

bluffs  with  great  detached  yellow  rocks  rising  out  of  the 
water.  The  change  is  most  welcome,  and  the  scene 
most  attractive,  after  the  long,  tedious  grind  through 
the  Flats,  and  with  hearts  full  of  pleasant  anticipation 
of  the  fine  scenery  of  the  ramparts,  we  enter  upon  the 
second  half  of  the  journey. 

Soon  after  entering  the  ramparts,  however,  the  bluffs 
fall  away  and  open  country  is  resumed  for  a  number  of 
miles,  though  not  the  open  country  of  the  Flats.  Through 
this  open  country,  between  the  lower  and  upper  ramparts, 
enters  the  Coleen  River  from  the  north;  though  why 
called  Coleen,  by  whom  or  after  whom,  I  have  not  been 
able  to  discover.  It  is  also  called  "Sucker  River," 
sometimes  spelled  "Succour"— a  spelling  for  which  I 
wish  I  had  reason,  for  then  would  hang  a  story  to  it, 
whereas  "sucker"  is  simply  a  fish.  By  this  break  in 
the  continuity  of  the  gorge-like  formation  we  are  the 
better  prepared  for  the  upper  ramparts  when  they  come, 
as  they  do  presently,  and  for  about  fifty  miles  to  the 
New  Rampart  House  and  ten  miles  or  so  beyond,  pre- 
sent some  of  the  most  picturesque  river  scenery  of  the 
north. 

It  takes  limestone  and  sandstone  to  make  picturesque 
scenery;  to  weather  away  into  spires  and  turrets  and 
fantastic  craggy  shapes  shooting  up  naked  and  ragged; 
to  bring  the  charm  of  colour  with  which  the  upper  ram- 
parts abound,  yellow  ochres  and  red-browns,  stains  of 
copper  and  uon  ore,  deep  velvety  blacks  of  shale  and 
pure  white  of  lime.  I  have  seen  the  canon  of  the  Yellow- 
stone and  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado,  and  I  am 


%] 


*u 


THE  RAMPART  DISTRICT 


not  going  to  compare  the  ramparts  <>(  the  Porcupine 
with  them  for  a  moment,  so  much  smaller  is  the  scale. 
But  I  do  not  think  that  the  rocks  of  the  one  or  the  other 
carry  any  more  vivid  colouring. 

The  upper  ramparts  of  the  Porcupine  begin  at  the 
Howling  Dog  Rock,  where  the  river  is  confined  by  pre- 
cipitous bluffs  that  drop  sheer  into  the  water.  At  this 
rock  thr  tracking  of  boats  up  the  river  must  be  inter- 
mitted and  the  oars  resorted  to;  the  dogs  that  have  been 
pulling  the  line  or  running  along  the  beach  accompanying 
the  trackers,  must  take  to  the  water  and  swim  around 
the  rock,  and  they  precede  the  plunge  by  prolonged 
protest.  Just  below  the  rock,  on  a  fine  elevated  bench, 
is  the  attractive  site  to  which  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany removed  when  it  was  ejected  from  the  newly  ac- 
quired territory  of  the  United  States  at  Fort  Yukon  in 
1869,  thinking  that  it  had  passed  into  British  territory; 
but  it  was  soon  found  that  the  new  post  was  also  within 
the  Alaskan  purchase,  and  within  a  year  another  remove 
was  made  twelve  miles  farther  up  the  river  to  the  Old 
Rampart  House. 

There  is  no  sameness  about  the  ramparts  of  the  Por- 
cupine as  there  is  about  the  ramparts,  upper  and  lower, 
of  the  Yukon.  Every  bend  brings  some  different  scene, 
and  while  the  canon-like  character  of  the  passage  is 
maintained  throughout,  there  is  great  diversity  in 
shape  and  colour  and  arrangement  of  the  masses  of  rock. 
Sometimes  for  a  long  stretch  the  wall  is  perfectly  level 
and  almost  perpendicular,  and  the  term  "rampart"  is 
exactly  expressive  of  its  appearance.    At  the  turning  of 


ROCKY  SHORES 


33S 


another  bend  and  a  change  in  the  nature  of  the  rock  of 
the  containing  walls,  the  scene  is  altered  completely, 
and  every  possible  irregularity  in  contour  is  introduced 
Here  a  needle  that  would  afford  entertainment  to  the 
most  daring  rock-climber,  rises  straight  from  the  water's 
edge;  here  a  group  of  jagged  white  pinnacles  issues  out 
of  and  surmounts  a  dark-brown  bluff;   here  a  rounded 
verdure-clad  shoulder  juts  out  in  striking  contrast  be- 
yond stark  yellow  rock.    The  next  bend,  it  may  be,  is 
dommated  by  a  mountain  mass  that  towers  to  a  peak 
still   carrying  snow,  and  from  it  the  ridges  fall  away  in 
successive  buttresses  and  terraced  escarpments.     Now 
one  bank  and  now  the  other  claims  chief  distinction  of 
fantastic  masonry.    "Quartzites  and  dolomites"  intrud- 
mg  themselves  whimsically  give  splashes  of  rich  and 
varied  colours. 

The  stream  itself  is  as  varied  as  its  ramparts.  Here 
are  placid  stretches  with  little  current;  here  are  rapids 
that  It  taxes  the  launch  to  stem;  by  and  by  we  shall 
reach  water  that  with  her  diminished  power  she  can 
scarce  pass  through  at  all,  and  then  the  pike-poles  are 
brought  to  her  assistance  and  she  is  pushed  through  the 
worst  of  it.  The  loss  of  a  hundred  revolutions  per 
mmute  is  a  serious  matter.  Here  are  large  rocks  in 
midstream  over  which  the  water  foams  and  roars 
There  is  a  story  that  an  old  Indian  long  ago  shattered 
his  canoe  on  one  of  these  half-submerged  rocks  in  mid- 
stream, and,  being  unable  to  swim,  stayed  there  and 
starved  to  death,  his  bones  being  found  on  it  in  the 
fall.    Here  are  beautiful  little  sheltered  bays  with  white 


y 


» 

111 


'A 


|i: 


236 


OLD  RAMPART  HOUSE 


l.t 


i 


V 


•.I    ' 


1 
'I 

I      I 


1  I 


sand  beaches  right  beside  the  rapids,  a  sharp  line  of  eddy 
dividing  the  rushing  water  from  the  still.  In  one  such 
we  tie  up  for  the  night,  a  brawling  stream  coming  out 
of  a  cleft  in  the  mountains  just  opposite  and  singing  us 
to  sleep. 

Ninety'miles  or  so  above  our  entrance  of  the  ramparts 
we  come  to  the  site  of  the  Old  Rampart  House,  occupied 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  in  full  confidence  that 
they  were  by  now  in  British  territory,  from  1869  to  1889. 
In  this  latter  year  comes  John  Henry  Turner  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  (the  man  for  whom  so  many 
places  are  named  in  Alaska)  and  sets  up  his  instruments 
and  determines  the  longitude,  by  which  determination 
the  Old  Rampart  House  is  still  some  thirty-five  miles, 
by  the  windings  of  the  river,  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States;  and  so  the  company  moves  its  post  once 
more  and  establishes  the  New  Rampart  House. 

Upon  the  site  of  the  old  post  (of  which  no  vestige  re- 
mains but  a  graveyard)  we  find  a  summer  encampment 
of  natives,  from  the  village  of  ten  or  twelve  cabins  on 
the  opposite  bank  where  a  mountain  torrent  comes  in 
through  a  gap  in  the  bluffs,  and  landing  a  while  we 
climb  up  to  the  knoll  on  which  the  graveyard  is  placed. 
The  little  plot  is  rudely  but  substantially  fenced,  for  it 
is  still  the  burial-place  of  this  Indian  community,  and 
amidst  unnamed  Indian  graves  are  here  and  there  de- 
cayed headboards  upon  which  may  be  traced  the  names 
of  "Hudson's  Bay  Company's  servants";  and  one,  which 
we  are  seeking,  bears  the  half-obliterated  name  of  the 
Reverend  Vincent  Sim,  who  died  here  in  1885.    This  is 


I 


'* 


t,. 


J^tl 


;!      ' 


II 


MISSIONARY  HEROISM  237 

the  man  of  whose  work  at  Xanana  Lieutenant  Allen 
speaks  so  warmly.  Leaving  Xanana  in  1884,  he  returned 
hither  nervous  and  ill,  partly  the  result,  it  is  said,  of  the 
persecution  of  a  Xanana  medicine-man  who  kept  a  drum 
incessantly  beating  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sim's  tent 
whenever  he  kn.w  tixat  Sim  was  trying  to  sleep,  so  that 
labouring  all  day  in  his  teaching,  he  was  tormented  all 
night  for  weeks  on  end.  Hearing  of  his  condition  the 
missionary  from  Fort  McPherson  came  hither  to  nurse 
him,  and  as  he  grew  worse  and  fell  into  a  general  de- 
cline, promised  to  take  him  outside  by  way  of  the  Yukon 
(because  the  Riel  rebellion  was  disturbing  travel  in  the 
northwest  provinces)  as  soon  as  water  ran  again.  But 
on  the  very  day  that  the  ice  broke  and  the  water  ran  on 
the  Porcupine  River  (iMay  25)  Sim  died. 

Xhere  is  something  very  noble  to  my  eyes  in  the  life 
and  death  of  a  man  such  as  this.  Allen  found  a  child  to 
whom  he  had  taught  the  alphabet  at  the  headwaters  of 
the  Xanana  River,  heard  praise  of  his  self-denying 
labour  at  the  mouth  thereof;  here  at  the  Rampart  House 
the  story  goes  that  he  was  teaching  even  when  he  was 
dying.  Xhirty-odd  years  ago  a  white  man  in  these  parts 
had  to  live  as  the  Indians  live,  travel  as  they  travel, 
eat  their  food;  and  nothing,  it  seems  to  me,  but  the  pure 
flame  of  disinterested  and  consecrated  devotion  could 
furnish  the  impulse  and  momentum  for  such  a  life. 
Who  can  tell  how  wide  its  influence  has  stretched?— 
what  part  in  the  melioration  of  savage  ferocity  such  as 
Alexander  Murray  describes  at  Fort  Yukon  (not  to  go 
to  any  ecclesiastical  source)  should  justly  be  attributed 


I 

I 


il, 


• 


f- 1 


I'M 


!'«. 


h .  ! ' 


I 


»38 


A  CONTRAST 


thereunto  ?-so  that  if  these  people  be  called  savages 
to^ay,  they  must  be  called  gentle  savages  to  whom 
deeds  of  violence  are  almost  unknown.     I  think  that 
mouldering  grave  at  the  Old  Rampart  House  is  more 
honourable  and  more  enviable  than  nine-tenths  of  all  the 
mortuary  monuments  upon  which  sculptors  have  lavished 
skill,  more  honourable  and  more  enviable  than  nme- 
tenths  that  Westminster  Abbey  contains.    Let  it  be  re- 
membered to  the  honour  of  the  Church  of  England  that 
she  had  such  sons  and  sent  them  into  the  wilderness 
long  ago;  upon  whose  labours  we  of  the  American  church 
ha-e  tardily  entered,  in  these  more  comfortable  times,  to 
rer;    in  some  measure,  the  fruit.    Travelling  the  Porcu- 
pine in  the  Pflican  is  a  very  different  matter  from  trav- 
elling it  in  a  birch-bark  canoe. 

The  thirty  or  thirty-five  miles  between  the  Old  Ram- 
part House  and  the  New  includes  the  best  of  the  ram- 
part scenery  and  the  swiftest  of  its  water.    The  run 
takes  us  ten  hours,  which  would  be  reduced  probably  by 
a  couple  of  hours  had  we  our  full  speed.    The  gorge    ar- 
rows and  deepens,  and  grows,  I  think,  somewhat  more 
sombre  in  colouring,  but  the  crags  and  cliffs  even  more 
impressive  in  form,  until  immediately  after  passmg  a 
curious  bright-yellow-topped  mountain  on  our  right,  we 
swing  to  our  left,  the  ramparts  widen  out,  and  we  are  in 
sight  of  the  New  Rampart  House.    Here  in  a  basin  in 
the  river-bed,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  rugged  hills  or 
bluffs  about  five  hundred  feet  high,  the  river  swinging 
around  both  sides  of  the  basin,  with  a  wide  dreary  waste 
of  sand-bar  in  the  middle,  is  the  end  of  our  present  jour- 


SETTLING  THE  BOUNDARY  239 

ney.  Much  as  a  city  street  curves  out  into  a  circus  with 
a  grass-plot  or  a  monument  in  the  centre  and  then 
resumes  its  proper  narrowness,  does  the  Porcupine  River 
open  out  into  this  basin  and  then  contract  to  its  gorae- 
lilce  form  again. 

Very  picturesquely  the  new  trading  buildings  of  the 
Rampart  House  rise  from  their  high  steep  bench     A 
gully  from  the  mountains  cleaves  this  bench  and  on  the 
other  side  thereof  stand  the  unfinished  church  and  the 
native  cabins.    And  that  red  flag  .^-Campbell's  "meteor 
flag     seems  out  here  in  the  wilderness  its  happiest  de- 
scription as  it  flaunts  its  rich  deep  colour  amidst  the 
greys  and  greens  and  browns-that  unaccustomed  flag 
flymg  from  two  flagstaflFs  ?~k  is  the  flag  of  England,  for 
we  have  at  length  reached  indubitable  British  territory 
But  by  how  much  we  have  reached  it  is  very  interesting 
to  notice.    While  the  place  is  in  full  sight  and  we  are 
speeding  towards  it  we  are  yet  in  Alaska.    You  see  that 
last  cabin  on  the  Ieft.?-ten  feet  therefrom  stands  the 
bronze  monument,  one  side  of  which  is  inscribed  "Can- 
ada" and  the  other  "Alaska."    John  Henry  Turner  put 
the  boundary-line  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  so  to  the  west- 
ward, but  this  is  the  conclusive  and  ultimate  delimita- 
tion, the  careful  work  of  an  international  scientific  com- 
mission.   The  line  of  the  141st  meridian  is  now  run  with 
mmute  accuracy  from  the  Gulf  of  Alaska  to  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  and  is  marked  all  the  way  at  regular  intervals 
with  bronze  monuments  on  concrete  bases. 

This  matter  of  the  longitude  of  points  in  the  Arctic 
wilderness  was  beset  with  great  difliculty.     The  only 


% 


•  .1 


i 


i 


in 


m 


(:;■ 


I   ''HI 


ft 


'r 


240  MANY  REMOVALS 

data  the  Hudson's  Bay  people  had  were  the  determina- 
tions made  by  Sir  John  Franklin  on  the  MacKenzie  in 
1826.  In  the  absence  of  chronometers,  or  any  tele- 
graphic means  of  obtaining  time,  in  the  absence  of  any 
scientific  instruments,  trying  to  carry  a  dead  reckoning 
down  rapid  rivers,  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  were  uncer- 
tain of  their  situation. 

Nothing  could  be  more  careful  than  Murray's  record 
of  his  courses  all  the  way  from  La  Pierre's  House  to  Fort 
Yukon;  they  occupy  page  after  page  of  his  published 
"Journal."  He  mounted  a  compass  in  the  boat,  checked 
its  variation  repeatedly  as  best  he  could,  and  riveted  his 
attention  upon  it  during  the  whole  journey;  indeed, 
Murray  well  knew  that  he  was  far  within  Russian  ter- 
ritory, but  could  only  guess  how  far.  Raymond's  de- 
termination sent  the  company  back,  some  other  determi- 
nation or  just  their  own  misgivings  sent  them  back  again. 
Turner's  determination  sent  them  back  once  more— and 
the  site  of  their  last  removal  stands  but  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards  across  the  boundary  to-day. 

One  recalls  the  controversy  about  the  longitude  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  and  the  outrageous  lines  of 
Dean  Swift,  perhaps  the  most  scurrilous  in  English 
literature,  beginning: 

"The  longitude  missed  on 
By  wicked  Will  Whitton 
And  not  better  hit  on 
By  good  Master  Ditton." 

which  lines  are  said  to  have  caused  the  death  of  "good 
Master   Ditton."    There  has  certainly  been  improve- 


t 


^<sw 


.<£^m.-;* 


At  thk  Kvmimkt  IIi> 


■^ 


*V' 


H 


ii.  I 


HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY'S  RECORD  241 
ment  in  taste  these  two  centuries,  if  in  nothing  else,  as 
the  reader  who  shall  turn  up  the  reference  in  a  com- 
plete edition  of  Swift  will  readily  agree. 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  is  gone;  the  attraction 
of  the  Indian  to  the  Yukon  by  the  great  impetus  which 
the  mming  developments  on  that  river  gave  to  trading 
coupled  with  the  refusal  of  the  United  States  Govern^ 
ment  to  permit  the  company  to  bring  in  its  goods  by 
way  of  St.  Michael  (the  actual  refusal  was  a  refusal  of 
permission  to  cut  wood  for  its  steamboats)  caused  the 
company  to  withdraw  from  Yukon  waters  altogether. 
I  have  always  thought  that  it  abandoned  a  good  post 
m  pique.  After  a  few  lean  years  the  Indians  returned 
and  an  independent  trader  has  thrived  there  this  long 
time. 

Men  may  say  what  they  like  about  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company.    It  paid  low  prices  for  furs  and  low  wages  to 
its  servants,  but  it  handled  nothing  but  thoroughly  good 
merchandise,   maintaining   generation    after   generation 
a  standard  quality;  and  it  managed,  despite  the  low 
wages,  to  secure  capable  and  conscientious  men  and  to 
keep  tiiem.     It  secured  the  confidence  of  the  natives; 
its  promises  were  never  broken,  its  rules  were  rigidly 
maintained.     To  this  day  the  natives  at  Fort  Yukon 
can  make  no  higher  compliment  to  an  article  of  mer- 
chandise than  to  say,  "All-e-same  Hudson's  Bay."  and 
seek  to  obtain  by  barter  from  their  more  fortunate 
Canadian  kinsfolk   (as  they  regard  them  in  this  par- 
ticular) the  blankets  and  duffle,  the  scarves  and  braids 
which  they  can  no  longer  purchase  directly. 


'i'i 


J' 


1 


i|,! 


.11' 


341  REMOTE  WHITE  SETTLEMENT 

Between  our  sight  of  the  New  Rampart  House  and 
our  arrival  lies  the  swiftest  water  we  have  yet  encountered, 
and  the  PtHcan  is  shorn  of  the  honour  of  passing  proudly 
through  it  by  the  wretched  mishap  that  battered  and 
buckled  her  propeller.     In  the  midst  of  it  she  stands 
still,  her  best  speed  evenly  matched  by  the  speed  of  the 
water.     Edging  towards  the  shoaler  part  of  the  stream 
the  pike-poles  are  resorted  to  and  she  is  ignominiously 
poked  and  shoved  through  the  rapid  until  slower  current 
is  reached  and  she  can  make  her  own  way  to  the  bank 
where   the   whole   population   awaits   her-consp.cuous 
amongst  them  the  red  jacket  and  yellow-striped  trousers 
of  a  sergeant  of  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police. 

There  is  interest  even  to  excitement  in  reaching  this 
place     It  is  the  first  white  settlement  we  have  seen  m 
all  our  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  travel;  it  is  one  of 
the  most  northerly  settlements  in  all  this  interior  coun- 
try  if  indeed  it  be  not  the  most  northerly.    That  trad 
winding  up  the  westerly  of  the  two  hills  rising  behmd 
the  place  leads  right  across  country,  up-hill  and  down- 
dale  to  the  shore  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  or  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  away  as  the  crow 
flies,  and  nigh  two  hundred,  I  suppose,  as  it  must  be 
travelled.     Up   it   and   along  it  went   the   pack-mules 
carrying  the  bagg    e  and  supplies  of  the  Boundary  Com- 
mission.   I  climbed  it  just  a  week  ago  (for  I  am  nwly 
returned  to  finish  this  chapter  from  a  voyage  on  the  Por- 
cupine and  some  of  the  details  here  incorporated  refer 
to  this  latest  journey),  and  pushed  on  for  a  mile  or  so 
through  the  thick  scrub  brush  with  which  the  plateau  is 


CAN-ALASKA 

43 

covered  the  mule-trail  well  defined  though  boggy  pushed 
on  a.i  though  bound  for  rh>  a„.'  ""J«y.  pushed 

wishing  thaf  I  were  botd?orfh;Arcr"  "'  '"""^ 
-y  companions  on  the  />' .r.ntas  ""''  "  °"'  °^ 

The  hills  around  are  all  worth  climbing  for  the  d!f 
ferent  views  they  aflford      Snm-  c         ■,  °''" 

the  Rampart  HousTdeft    "he  b'  "  "  '^  """'  °' 

mountam  top  glowed  deep  crimson;  a  ver^Ttrr n^'and 
bcau..r„,  3ight  that  reminded  me  Jf  a  ml  gh'i: 
once  saw  on  the  top  of  Vesuvius      Anj        'Snt  glow  i 

f«»...  ™„i„rwar^;./i^,,s^ 
tamly  require  "some  can."  would  cer- 

womanTthf "  "''"'  i"""'^  °'  ''''^  P'^«  "  °n«  old 
woman  of  the  greatest  interest.     She  is    I  thint    .u 

odest  native  of  all  these  parts,  and  th  ug      ebt    nl 

ecrep.t  m  body,  of  unusual  sprightliness  of  m  „d     "he 

Remembers  the  coming  of  the  first  white  mT  to  the 

Porcupme  R.ver,  and  rh.t  was  John  Bell  in  X84V  o 

that,  her  memory  running  back  seventy-five  veart    ,h^ 

must    e  well  p.«  eighty,  as  I  judge,  and  that  i    a  gr 

age  for  Indians  to  attain.    Some  one,  hearing  her  speak 

of  the  first  commg  of  the  white  man,  said  ''She  Zt 


I 


]'i 


i  ^ 


t 


IP 

* 


I'f! 


'    l) 


't;  u 


I' 


244  AN   INDIAN   HERMIT 

mean  McDougal,"  who  started  the  Porcupine  po«t  in 
1869.    "Oh,  no!"  ihe  said,  when  told  of  it,  "that  was 
only  a  little  while  ago!"     Moreover  there  is  a  romantic 
story  attaching  to  her.    It  is  said  that  when  a  young 
woman  she  was  stolen  away  from  her  husband,  or  from 
her  affianced  husband,  I  could  not  be  sure  which,  who 
thereupon  renounced  the  society  of  his  people  and  lived 
a  hermit's  life.    He  would  bring  the  fruits  of  his  trapping 
and  deposit  them  on  the  beach  near  the  store;  the  trader 
would  take  them  and  in  return  place  such  a  general  sup- 
ply as  they  were  worth  and  as  he  judged  the  man  would 
need;   whereupon   the   misanthrope   of  the   wilderness 
would  come  down  in  the  night  again  and  remove  the 
"outfit"  to  his  lair  in  the  mountains;  and  that  was  all 
his  intercourse  with  mankind  for  the  many  years  he 
lived.     It  is  hard  to  associate  this  withered  and  shriv- 
elled creature  with  the  inspiring  of  such  a  passion,  yet 
there  is  even  now  a  gleam  in  her  bleared  eyes  and  a 
musical  intonation  in  her  voice,  a  readiness  of  wit  and 
an  air  of  independence  and  resolution  that  single  her 
out  from  old  Indian  women.    I  suppose  if  I  say  that  I 
count  it  a  privilege  to  offer  her  a  tribute  of  tobacco,  I 
shall  "provoke  in  the  sinful  a  smile"  as  Truthful  James 
used  to  put  it,  but  indeed  these  ancients  of  the  wilder- 
ness make  great  appeal  to  me.    One  by  one  they  drop 
off;  the  contemporaries  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  advent  in 
these  parts  are  now  reckoned  two  or  three  only,  and  this 
venerable  dame  is  the  briskest  as  well  as  the  oldest  of 
them.    I  wish  we  had  her  at  Fort  Yukon;  it  would  be 
interesting  to  take  care  of  her,  to  dig  into  the  nethermost 


W 


\l: 


1   It 


-LI 
irii' 


i 


<i 


\i 


THE  UPPER  PORCUPINE  245 

layers  of  her  memory,  and  to  see  how  much  longer  we 
could  keep  her  alive.  * 

though  beyond  th.s  point  the  P.Hcan  has  never  been 
For  ten  m.les  fa.ther  the  gc.ge  of  the  river  continues  in 
the  same  direction,  with,  it  is  said,  even  loftier  and  nar- 
rower walls  and  swifter  water;  then  the  bluffs  fall  away 
and  there  .s  open  though  rocky  country  and  easy  navi- 
gation for  s.xty  miles  to  the  mouth  of  the  Old  Crow  River 
commg  m  from  the  north  and  interlocking  with  the  head- 
waters of  the  Firth  River  which  flows  into  the  Arctic 
Ocean  at  Herschel  Island.    Beyond  that  is  reputed  good 
water  for  another  on.  hundred  and  fifty  miles  or  so,^ 
to  the  east,  until  the  Bell,  als .  from  the  north,  is  re- 
ceived, and  some  thirty  miles  up  the  Bell  is  La  Pierre's 
House,  where  the  portage  to  Fort  MacPherson  is  taken 
-^n  which  journey  my  guest  and  companion  was  bent 
To  trace  the  river  farther  would  be  to  sweep  around  to 
the  south,  and   I  suppose  another  two  hundred  miles 
would   be  travelled  in  this  direction  ere  the  Nahoni 
Lakes,  from  wh.ch  the  river  takes  its  rise,  were  reached; 
but  smce  at  the  Bell  mouth  the  river  ceases  to  afford 
highway  of  travel,  ceases  to  lead  anywhither  that  men 
would  go  ,ts  upper  courses  are  little  known  save  to  the 
.solated  bands  of  Indians  who  inhabit  them  and  find 
their    most    convenient    trading-place    at    Dawson    or 
tortymile.    It  ,s  very  curious,  however,  as  looking  back 
to  the  intertribal  hostilities  that  preceded  the  coming 
of  the  whit,  man  to  the  Yukon,  that  the  Indians  from 
Eagle  to  Circle  stUl  dread  the  people  of  the  upper  Por- 


■  :i 


i  I; 


N> 


!i  !l 


1 

t 

it 


2^6  DANGEROUS  NAVIGATION 

cupine.  and  not  only  children  but  Sro^\rtj^, 
friEhtened  if  told  "the  Nahonis  are  coming.  A  white 
man.  building  a  cabin  near  Charley  Creek  this  year 
(1917),  was  induced  to  build  it  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  Yukon  because  of  his  native  wife's  dread  of  the 

Nahonis.  .   , 

If  the  voyage  up  the  Porcupine  be  one  of  the  most 
interesting  that  the  waterways  of  Alaska  afford,  the 
voyage  down,  particularly  through  the  ramparts,  is  full 
of  the  keen  excitement  that  a  spice  of  danger   and  the 
constant  vigilance  necessary  to  evade  it,  induce.     In 
places  the  current  is  so  rapid,  the  channel  so  narrow,  the 
shoals  so  near,  the  turns  so  sharp,  that  care  and  sbU 
are  required  and  a  very  quick  hand  and  eye  to  guu.e  the 
boat  safely  through.    There  is  no  time  to  change  ones 
mind  or  to  correct  a  mistake.     Sometimes  one  must 
steer  straight  for  a  rock,  impact  with  which  would  stave 
in  the  boat,  and,  as  it  seems,  upon  the  very  instant 
before  striking  it,  the  wheel  must  be  thrown  hard  over 
that  the  boat  may  make  an  almost  quarter-circle  turn 
and  still  keep  in  the  deep  water.     Sometimes,  as  at 
Martin's  Island  between  the  upper  and  lower  ramparts, 
the  water  sweeps  very  swiftly  over  wide  gravel  shallows 
with  a  narrow  channel  in  the  midst,  hard  to  discern  and 
taking  short,  sharp  turns.    The  channel  had  httle  more 
depth  than  enough  to  float  us  and  our  speed  had  there- 
fore  to  be  cut  down  till  it  scarce  sufficed  for  quick  steer- 
ageway;  and  this,  I  think,  at  low  water  is  one  of  the 
worst  places  in  the  whole  river. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  easy  to  exaggerate  the  diffi- 


CHANDALAR  RIVER 


247 


culties  and  dangers  of  this  navigation;  to  those  properly 
equipped  and  accustomed  to  swift  water  it  is  not  a  bad 
river.  There  is  a  fascination  about  such  travel,  how- 
ever, that  keeps  one  close  by  the  wheel,  though  I  know 
it  is  quite  safe  in  Walter's  hand,  far  safer  than  it  would 
be  in  my  own.  We  brought  the  boat  down  on  this  last 
trip,  in  one  run  from  the  New  Rampart  House  to  Fort 
Yukon,  in  about  twenty  hours,  and  I  think  he  was  at 
the  wheel  for  fifteen  or  sixteen  of  them,  leaving  it  to  me 
only  to  eat  or  to  attend  to  the  engine,  and  I  was  al- 
ways  glad  when  he  returned. 

Both  going  and  returning  the  heavy  ice  of  the  break-up 
lay  piled  upon  the  banks  and  sand-bars,  gradually  dis- 
solving in  the  sun,  for  the  high  water  of  the  break-up 
of  1917  was  checked  by  sharp  unseasonable  cold  weather 
and  fell  coo  rapidly  to  bear  away  its  burden. 

From  the  latter  half  of  the  journey  the  pleasure  was 
largely  removed  by  an  exceeding  high  up-river  wind  that 
gathered  the  sand  from  the  bars  and  flung  it  all  over  us 
and  through  us,  and  sometimes  carried  such  clouds  of 
dust  as  to  obscure  the  steering  view.  The  Porcupine 
IS  not  wide  enough  to  get  up  much  of  a  sea;  in  the  lower 
Yukon  we  should  have  had  to  seek  shelter  from  such  a 
wind;  but  even  the  Porcupine  grows  very  choppy  when 
wind  is  beating  against  current. 

The  Chandalar  River 
The  Chandalar  River  takes  its  name  from  the  term 
used  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  servants  at  Fort 
Yukon  to  describe  one  of  the  numerous  tribes  of  Indians 


\.1 


m 

'4 


i!t! 


I; 


m 


<  1 


i'^i 


:l  ' 


Ml     i 


III  ■) 


II! 


M 


I  i 


248 


ORIGIN  OF  NAME 


who  visited  the  post.    Because  these  Indians  resembled 
the  children  of  Jonadab  the  son  of  Rechab,  more  closely 
than  the  generality  of  Indians,  in  having  no  permanent 
villages  but  living  in  tents  and  wandering  widely,  they 
were  known  as  "Gens  de  large,"  and  the  river  which 
they  chiefly  frequented  and  down  which  they  came  on 
their  journeys  to  Fort  Yukon  was  called   "Gens  de 
Large"  River.    It  is  so  pronounced  to-day  by  the  older 
Indians  of  the  place  when  they  use  its  white  man's 
name.    It  became  corrupted  into  Chandalar,  and  even 
found  its  way  into  the  Geographic  Dictionary  of  Alaska 
as  "Chandler,"  with  the  purely  fictitious  statement  that 
it  was  "said  to  be  so  named  from  John  Chandler,  a  factor 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company"— fictitious,  that  is,  on 
the  part  of  whoever  said  it— one  of  the  few  blunders 
which  that  very  valuable  book  contains.    The  Indian 
name  for  the  river,  or  for  that  part  of  it  below  the  moun- 
tains is  Tatreenjik. 

The  Chandalar  shares  with  the  Koyukuk  the  dramage 

of  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Endicott  range,  the  one 

flowing  southeast  to  a  confluence  with  the  Yukon  about 

twenty-five  miles  below  Fort  Yukon,  the  other  flowing 

southwest  with  much  longer  course  to  a  confluence  five 

hundred    miles    farther    down-stream,    a    little    above 

Nulato.    The  many  streams  that  flow  into  the  Yukon 

between  these  rivers  do  none  of  them  reach  back  to  the 

mountains  of  the  Arctic  divide,  but  take  their  rise  in  the 

uplands,  of  the  intervening  country.     The  Chandalar, 

therefore,  in  two  hundred  miles  of  its  course,  has  almost 

as  much  fall  as  the  Koyukuk  in  six  hundred,  and  is  for 


CHRISTIAN  RIVER 


249 


the  most  part  a  swift,  unnavigable  river.  It  has  been 
navigated  with  great  difficulty  by  steamboats  for  about 
one  hundred  miles,  but  this  traffic  has  ceased  for  the  last 
eight  years  and  it  is  now  ascended  by  poling-boats  only. 

A  few  miles  before  its  discharge  into  the  Yukon  the 
Chandalar  receives  on  its  left  bank  the  Christian  River, 
so  called  from  the  chief  of  the  Chandalar  Indians.  Chris- 
tian is  an  Indian  held  in  great  respect  alike  by  whites 
and  natives  of  these  parts,  who  exercises  much  more 
authority  than  most  Alaskan  chiefs  do  nowadays.  This 
stream  of  considerable  length  drains  the  swampy  lake 
country  between  the  East  Fork  of  the  Chandalar  and 
western  tributaries  of  the  Porcupine. 

Some  sixty  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Chandalar 
is  a  native  village  of  about  forty-five  souls  known  as  the 
Chandalar  Village,  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  the  winter 
trail  from  Fort  Yukon  strikes  the  river. 

For  another  thirty  or  forty  miles  the  river  is  still 
passing  through  the  Yukon  Flats  though  with  the  hills 
appearing  on  either  hand  and  promising  speedy  escape. 
Like  all  the  tributaries  of  the  north  bank  of  the  Yukon 
in  the  Flats,  the  Chandalar  enters  that  dreary  plain 
through  a  "gap"  in  the  mountains,  and  the  transition  is 
abrupt  and  striking.  There  is,  indeed,  a  gradual  and 
not  inconsiderable  slope  from  the  mountain  rim  to  the 
centre  of  the  plain;  indeed  the  level  appearance  of  the 
Flats  is  everywhere  deceptive,  their  sides  being  tilted 
to  their  centre  and  the  central  line  itself  (the  bed  of  the 
Yukon)  having  slope  enough  to  give  rapid  flow  to  its 
waters,  but  any  point  of  emergence  from  this  region  into 


^-1: 


I 


1     ,    i 


?;  if 


Pf 


V 


IV     111'' 


.[ 


I 


2S0  UNCHARTED  REGION 

the  encircling  hills  is  abrupt,  and  the  traveller  in  the 
winter  is  unaware  of  the  grade  he  has  been  ascending. 

Just  above  the  rugged  rocks  and  high  bluffs  that 
make  the  Chandalar  Gap,  the  East  Fork  is  received,  and 
by  the  common  consent  of  the  natives  and  of  such  white 
men  as  have  traversed  and  prospected  the  country  the 
East  Fork  of  the  Chandalar  is  really  the  main  branch  of 

the  river. 

But  the  East  Fork  of  the  Chandalar  is  quite  unknown 
to  explorers  and  map-makers.  It  has  never  been  visited 
by  any  members  of  the  Geological  Survey,  and  the  stream 
on  all  maps  is  put  in  by  those  vague  dotted  lines  which 
mean  "conjectural  course."  What  is  called  the  "mam 
Chandalar"  has  been  surveyed  and  mapped,  but  this 
large  arm  which  I  am  confident  will  prove  the  longest 
arm,  awaits  further  appropriations  or  leisure  from  more 
pressing  tasks;  a  condition  which  all  the  region  from  the 
Chandalar   to  the  boundary-line,  the   141st  meridian, 

shares 

Between  the  East  Fork  of  the  Chandalar  and  the 
tributaries  of  the  Sheenjik  or  Big  Salmon,  which  is  an 
affluent  of  the  Porcupine,  and  just  above  the  headwaters 
of  the  Christian  River,  lies  a  great  lake,  the  largest  I 
am  confident  within  the  whole  basin  of  the  Yukon;  yet 
it  finds  no  place  upon  any  map.  I  have  never  seen  the 
lake,  but  it  has  been  described  to  me,  and  sketch-maps 
have  been  drawn  of  it  by  both  white  men  and  Indians. 
Its  longest  dimension,  roughly  north  and  south,  is 
twenty-five  miles— a  white  man  well  known  to  me  having 
stated  that  with  excellent  snow  surface  in  the  spring  it 


CHRISTIAN  LAKE  351 

took  him  considerably  over  half  a  day  to  traverse  it  with 
a  dog-sled,  and  its  width  varies  from  two  to  five  miles. 
It  is  bounded  on  the  west  by  very  high  and  rugged 
mountains,  by  lesser  ones  on  the  east,  and  by  swampy 
flats  through  which  its  discharge  meanders,  on  perhaps 
both  north  and  south,  and  it  is  said  to  be  of  great  depth. 
I  judge  its  northern  shore  to  lie  just  south  of  the  68th 
parallel,  between  the   144th  and   i4sth   meridian,  and 
It  is  said  by  many  to  drain  into  both  the  East  Fork  of 
the   Chandalar   and   the    Sheenjik,   though    by   others 
to  discharge  into  the  latter  only.    This  lake  is  known 
by  the  Indians  as  Vun-gi-i-te,  or  nearly  Vungitty,  by 
which  name  I  think  it  should  appear  on  the  maps  when 
maps  are  made  of  this  region.     The  few  white  men 
who  know  it  usually  speak  of  it  as  "Christian's  Lake" 
because  it  is  a  resort  of  the  chief  of  that  name  and  his 
people.    While  preferring  the  native  name  I  should  not 
greatly  resent  the  perpetuation  of  the  white  man's  name, 
since  in  this  case  it  would  honour  a  native  chief  who 
has  been  a  father  to  his  scattered  people.    Hither  come 
the  Eskimos  from  the  Arctic  coast  on  their  winter  hunts; 
and  to  them  repair  Christian  and  his  tribe  of  "Gens-de- 
Large"  for  the  bartering  of  the  furs  of  their  respective 
countries;  the  white  fox  and  the  polar  bear  for  the  wolf 
and  the  wolverene  chiefly;  with  some  traffic  in  ammuni- 
tion and  tools;  and  the  native  clergyman  at  Fort  Yukon 
has  more  than  once  taken  advantage  of  this  gathering 
for  the  evangelisation   and   instruction  through  inter- 
preters of  a  tribe  of  coast-dwellers,  some  of  whom  had 
once  or  twice  visited  the  mission  at  Herschel  Island,  but 


r 
i  HI 

»•; 
I 


'•      if- 

i     »  > 


'If:' 


1  'klt'J 


u 


A  WILDERNESS  TRAGEDY 


others  of  whom  had  never  been  to  that  or  any  other 
s  ation.    I  have  long  intended,  and  did  once  plan,  a  v.s.t 
to  this  interesting  rendezvous,  but  the  date  of  .ts  occur 
rence  is  uncertain  and  its  season  one  that  usually  finds 
me  far  afield  on  my  winter  journeys 

The  lake,  like  others  in  Alaska  and  elsewhere,  has  by 
Indian  legend  a  monstrous  fish  which  inhabits  .ts  waters 
and  produces  storms  by  the  thrashmg  of  .  s  tail  a 
fancy  which  the  sudden  squalls  of  mountam  lakes  give 
asy  and  natural  rise  to.  But  the  lake  is  reported  actu- 
ally to  hide  within  its  depths  trout  of  a  very  unusual 

'"'The  East  Fork  of  the  Chandalar  has  one  of  those 
wilderness  tragedies  associated  with  it  ^at  -  n°J  "- 
common  in  Alaska,  though  this  one  .s  marked  by  certam 
features  that  give  it  special  interest. 

Two  men  who  had  been  mmmg  m  the  region,  an 
old-timer,  Geraghty,  and  a  newcomer,  Clarke  set  out 
in  the  early  winter  of  .908  on  a  P^^^P^^/J^^P^^"^^ 
creek  away  up  near  the  headwaters  of  the  stream. 
G  agh"  had  been  there  before  and  had  found  pros- 
pects that  attracted  him,  but  he  was  noted  among,st 
J  s  Uuaintance  for  the  lack  of  that  sense  of  locahty 
which  is  so  valuable  a  quality  in  his  occupation  The 
men  had  a  dog-team  and  a  considerable  supply  of  staple 

"^m'en  a  year  passed  without  word  of  them  no  special 
concern  was  felt  by  their  acquaintance  because  it  was 
thought  they  might  have  passed  over  the  mountains  and 
d^n  the  Arctic  slope  and  replenished  their  suppliesat 


VOLUNTEER  SEARCH  WORK  253 

Flaxman  Island,  where  the  trader-explorer  LeflBngwell 
had  a  post  for  a  few  years,  though  this  was  not  within 
their  expressed  purpose;  but  when  another  winter  passed 
with  no  word  or  sign,  fears  for  their  fate  were  aroused. 

It  has  been  noticed  elsewhere  that  there  is  no  public 
authority  in  Alaska  charged  with  the  search  for  missing 
men,  nor  any  funds  out  of  which  the  expenses  of  such 
search  may  be  defrayed. 

In  default  thereof,   a  volunteer  of  the  Chandalar 
miners  set  out  in  the  spring  of  1910  to  follow  the  course 
the  two  prospectors  had  intended,  and  to  discover  if 
possible  what  had  happened  to  them.    The  narrative  of 
this  man.  Jack  Cornell,  which  I  took  down  upon  his  re- 
turn from  a  five  months'  search,  gave  a  vivid  picture  of 
the  difficulties  of  travel  in  the  northern  wilderness  in  the 
summer-time,  as  well  as  aflFording  one  more  illustration 
of  its  dangers  in  the  winter.     Incidentally  it  is  a  fine  il- 
lustration of  the  spirit  of  the  best  of  our  Alaskan  pros- 
pectors.    From  the  sth  of  April  to  the  8th  of  Septem- 
ber he  saw  no  living  soul  and  subsisted  entirely  upon 
game.     Having  knowledge  of  the  country,  he  made  his 
way  towards  a  pass  in  the  mountains  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  East  Fork,  through 
which  he  was  confident  these  men  must  have  gone  had 
they  visited  the  Arctic  coast,  and  there  he  found  evidence 
of  their  passage  both  going  and  coming,  and  judged  there- 
from that  they  had  visited  the  coast  and  returned  to  the 
East  Fork  country.    Old  camp  sites  left  signs  to  his  ex- 
perienced   eye  that  white  men   and   not   Indians  had 
lodged,  and  there  had  been  no  other  white  men  in  that 


:s 


U. 


I 


'  1 1 


1 


,54  HISTOLOGY  OK  THE  TRAIL 

country  for  y«.;  a  ''J';/^ -Vrys^owf:;  Tc 

Jnute    etail/of  the  tra.king  of  their  -"mmg  journey 
That  followed,  for  only  by  minute  details  could  it  be 
tra  ed     t  all  after  the  snow  upon  which  it  took  place 
had  J      and  fresh  snow  had  come  and  gone  agam. 
Thos  The  live  long  in  the  wilderness  have  the.  powe« 
of  observation  sharpened  to  a  degree  httle  short  of  mar- 
velt     though  for  myself  I  think  I  had  as  soon  seek  m 
Ihe  water  of  the  Yukon  for  trace  of  the  passage  of  the 
tatronast  summer  as  seek  in  the  wilderness   or  tra« 
of  the  passage  of  a  sled  two  wmters  ago.    Yet  there  are 
uch  traces,  and  with  long  experience  there  comes       th 
observant  an  ability  to  detect  them  wh.ch  belongs  to 
what  may  be  called  the  histology  of  the  tra.l;  the  br  ak 
Tng  down'of  brush,  the  use  of  the  axe,  never  very  bg 
intermitted,  the  charred  -^ers  of  old.xtmgu.shed  fi^^^^^ 
in  wind-swept  rocky  places  the  charactenst.c  mark  left 
on  stone  by  iron  runners,  the  excrement  of  the  dogs, 

'X^t'Z.s  Cornell  followed  the  return  jourrjey 
until  he  came  upon  the  body  of  one  of  the  men.  It  lay 
beside  a  broken  sled  and  some  tattered  remnants  of  tent 
L    n  advanced  stage  of  decay,  and  in  the  clothes  was  a 

ittle  mildewed  calendar  book  such  as  P-sp-tor    -- 
„>only  carry,  striking  out  each  day  -   '^^  P-";  ^^J 

name  in  which  identified  the  corpse  as  that  of  Clarke  and 

Icessation  of  the  marks  in  which  gave  presumptive 

evidence  of  the  date  of  death. 


FRUITLESS  INVESTIGATION  255 

Now  this  is  all  that  was  ever  really  known  of  the  fate 
of  these  two  men;  yet  notice  what  follows. 

Cornell  had  already  spent  six  months  at  his  own  ex- 
pense in  the  search,  and  no  government  agency  could  be 
set  in  motion  for  further  investigation  or  even  for  the 
decent  interment  of  the  remains  (which  Cornell  had 
scrupulously  left  as  he  found  them)  unless  some  charge 
of  crime  in  connection  with  the  death  could  be  made 
against  some  one.    I  dr  not  say  that  there  were  not  those 
in  the  Chandalar  who  really  suspected  foul  play,  but  I 
am  quite  certain  that  the  Chandalar  Indian  who  was 
charged  with  the  murder  before  the  commissioner  of  the 
precinct  would  never  have  been  arrested  had  not  the 
issuing  of  a  warrant  for  some  one's  arrest  been  the  neces- 
sary preliminary  to  further  inquiry.    Murder  in  the  air, 
and  an  accused  person  bound  over  to  the  grand  jury  at 
Fairbanks,  the  marshal's  office  was  unlocked,  no  ex- 
pense was  spared  and  two  special  deputies  were  soon 
afield.    They  passed  to  the  Arctic  coast  and  found,  as 
Cornell  had  deduced,  that  the  lost  men  had  in  fact  visited 
the  trading-post  maintained  for  a  few  years  at  Flaxman 
Island   and   had   returned— and   that  was   literally   all 
they  found.     The  remains  of  Clarke  were  boxed  and 
transported   to   Fairbanks,  where  they  were   carefully 
examined  by  a  surgeon  for  any  sign  of  bullet-wound,  the 
flesh  being  all  removed  from  the  bones,  without  result; 
and  the  Chandalar  Indian,  against  whom  there  was  no 
particle  of  evidence,  was  released  after  six  months'  con- 
finement  in  the  Fairbanks  gaol,  when  the  grand  jury 
Ignored  the  bill  against  him.    What  angered  me  most, 


\M 


J56  LEGAL  CHICANERY 

as  similar  instances  have  angered  me  before  and  since 

wa,  that  this  Indian  who  was  """"^    ,K  "r^  f 
Fairbanks  in  the  summer,  was  discharged  m  the  dead   . 
winter,  with  no  provision  of  clothes  or  money,  to  find  h.s 
way  back  to  his  home  as  best  he  might,  three  hundred 
miles  over  the  trail.    There  is  no  law  that  returns  a 
falsely  accused  man  to  his  domicile.     If  he  be  found 
guilty  and  serve  a  sentence,  though  it  be  but  a  week,  he 
I  returned  whence  he  came  at  the  government  expense, 
but  if  he  be  innocent  he  pays  this  penalty  for  mnocence. 
Now,  this  is  a  plain  statement  of  a  case,  all  the  per- 
sons of  which  were  well  known  to  me,  in  wh.ch  I  was 
„,yself  a  witness  before  the  grand  jury  as  to  the  where- 
abouts of  the  accused  at  the  supposed  time  of  Clarke  s 
death,  which  illustrates  the  stupidity  and  mjust.ce  of 
the  legal  procedure  under  which  Alaska  st.U  languishes. 
There  is,  I  think,  little  doubt  that  the  men  fell  out 
and  separated,  and  each  starved  or  froze  to  death  in  a 
very  severe  winter.    No  trace  of  Geraghty  has  ever  been 
found;  there  were  rumours  of  an  unknown  white  man 
taking  passage  on  a  whaler  at  Herschel  Island,  but  they 
were  unconfirmed,  and  the  case  passes  into  the  limbo  of 
unsolved  disappearances  to  which  Alaska  has  contributed 

so  many.  ,    ,  r  •»» 

But  I  referred  to  the  matter  not  only  because  of  its 
association  with  the  unknown  country  of  the  East  Fork 
of  the  Chandalar,  but,  as  I  said,  because  Cornells 
journey  illustrated  the  difficulties  of  summer  travel  in 
the  Arctic  wilderness.  Writing,  I  am  conscious,  in  the 
main  for  those  who  do  not  know  the  country  at  all,  oi 


'1   A 


CORNELLS  NARRATIVE  257 

who  do  but  float  down  its  rivers  in  comfortable  (team, 
boats,  I  am  glad  to  give  a  glimpse  occasionally  which 
shall  enabli  them  to  form  some  notion  of  what  is  in- 
volved  when  a  man  leaves  the  river-bank  and  strikes 
across  country.  Here  is  one  incident  towards  the  close 
of  Cornell's  journey  which  I  transcribe  literally  from  my 
diary: 

It  w«  the  rainieit  iummer  tver  I  ,c,-„  ,„„|  »hc  moo,  .roes 
w«  a  terror.  I  had  »  veil  and  I  honr.cy  odi.v.  „«,„  .^..l.  ", 
«t  It  up.  for  It  went  to  piece,  all  at  om  I  .„.n. «!,  1. :.,  !•  ihev 
eat  It  up  they  was  that  thick  and  that  v™oi.,nu.  V\  ,„,i,  dunce 
to  sleep  was  to  travel  so  long  and  .„  Inrd  ,h  ,r  '  r  11  as.cep  a,  «o„ 
as  I  stopped.  And  there  Td  lay  and  h.c  ,..,,„«  .nnl  f  ,«  chdkd 
through  and  woke  up.  and  off  I'd  start  agai...  Sc.  .ti,,,.  Vi  build 
a  fire  and  sometimes  it  was  so  wet  and  I  was  .„  ,  „!  |  uidn't  build 
no  fire.  One  night  I  had  a  scare  I  hain't  got  ever  y.t.  There', 
no  one  can  say  I  ain't  careful  with  fire-arms  and  I  never  had  no 
such  thing  happen  in  my  life  before,  and  I've  handled  fire-arms 
smce  I  was  a  lid.     But  I  was  so  plumb  tired  and  wet  and  done  up 

It  went  off  and  shot  a  hole  clean  through  m,  hat.  Of  course  I  muster 
forgot  to  draw  the  charge  and  the  gun  fell  back  against  the  tree 
and  struck  the  hammer.  I'm  considerable  of  a  nervous  tempera- 
ure  myself,  but  at  first  I  didn't  seem  to  take  no  particular  node!, 
the  thing  sorter  dazed  me  and  I  didn't  think  nothing  of  it;  I  muste^ 
been  plumb  wore  out.  But  when  I  lay  down  to  sleep  it  kinder 
came  over  me  that  I'd  had  a  mighty  close  call,  and  that  it  was  just 
a  shave  there  wasn  t  another  body  lying  out  in  these  here  hills 
I  retty  soon  I  got  to  trembling  so  I  couldn't  lay  still  and  then  I  just 
plumb  broke  down  and  I  couldn't  sleep  at  all.  When  I  got  up  in 
the  morning  and  kindled  a  fire  to  roast  two  rabbit  legs  for  breakfast 

I've  all  alone  in  the  hills  this-a  way;  first  thing  you  know  you'll  go 
bug-house.  And  I  made  up  my  mind  it'd  be  the  last  trip  I'd  take 
by  myself.     It  ain't  right.     But  I  hain't  figured  out  yet  how  I  come 

V  h  'i°j  /'  '  "'  ''f"  '  ""y  ""'"'  "'^"  *«''  «'«">"  »nd 
1  ve  handled  em  all  my  hfe.     I  muster  been  plumb  wore  out 


t 


ii! 

I 

,11 


lU 


'? 


II 


^  * 


258  THE  CHANDALAR  STAMPEDE 

Above  the  gap  the  main  Chandalar  enters  the  foot- 
hill country  and  it  is  bluffed  on  both  sides  henceforth 
with  high  mountains.  Eight  or  ten  miles  above  the  gap 
is  the  abandoned  post  of  the  Northern  Commercial  Com- 
pany known  as  Chandalar  Station,  with  numerous  empty 
cabins  clustering  around  its  store-buildings  and  ware- 
houses,  and  another  eighteen  miles  or  so  above  .s  the 
abandoned  or  nearly  abandoned  town  o  Caro,  popularly 
but  erroneously  supposed  to  be  named  after  a  cer  am 
brand  of  cane  s.  -up  much  in  use  for  hot  cakes  at  break- 
fast; it  was  named  for  a  lady  of  Fairbanks. 

The  Chandalar  stampede,  which  Was  responsible  for 
the  building  of  the  trading-post  and  the  town,  took 
place  in  the  winter  of  1906-7  and  the    oUow.ng  sum- 
Lr.    Prospectors  from  the  Koyukuk  found  gold  on  tribu- 
taries of  the  Middle  Fork,  and  ther    xvas  a     rush, 
first  from  the  Koyukuk  diggings  and  then  from  the  Yukon, 
and  the  Commercial  Company  felt  justified  m  the  con- 
siderable expense  of  its  establishment  here,  and  in  the 
greater  expense  proportionately  of  sending  "^  steamboats 
to  the  difficult  and  precarious  supply  thereof.    But  the 
placers    proved    disappointing,    and    extensive    further 
prospecting   revealed   little   ground   that  was   produc- 
tive    The  post  was   short-lived,  the  town  not  much 
longer;  in   1909  the  former  was  abandoned,  and  the 
latter  was  decayed  almost  to  nothing  in  1910.    Then 
came  a  fillip  of  renewed  activity  from  the  discovery  of 
quartz-ledges,  and  a  speculative  prospector  succeeded 
in  inducing  certain  people  "outside"  to  provide  money 
for  the  working  thereof.    Caro  revived,  and  its  talk 


QUARTZ-MINING  ^sg 

changed    from    "mica-schist    contacts"    to    "intrusive 
dikes     With  much  reference  to  "preglacial  conditions." 
1  have  formed  an  opinion  that  a  little  geological  knowl- 
edge .s  a  dangerous  thing  for  a  miner.    By  the  influence 
of  the     outsde"  people  referred  to,  the  Alaskan  Road 
Commission  was  induced  to  construct  eighty  miles  of 
wa^n-road  over  comparatively  easy  country  from  the 
Yukon  River  to  Caro.  and  "Beaver  City"  sprang  up  at 
its  Yukon  terminus.    The  road  was  entirely  justified,  I 
think,  and  is  regarded  as  a  pretty  good  piece  of  work- 
It  opens  a  wide  country  to  easy  access  winter  and  summer- 
but  ending  at  Caro  is  nowadays  ending  nowhere.     It 
shouH  be  extended  to  the  Koyukuk  River,  but  I  suppose 
the  bridging  of  the  main  streams  involves  an  expense 
that  the  commission  shrinks  from  with  its  present  re- 
sources. 

By  the  common  judgment  of  the  Chandalar  men  the 
money  that  should  have  been  spent  in  tunnelling  and 
uncovering  the  ledges  in  order  that  the  real  extent  and 
value  of  the  quartz  might  be  known  was  wasted  in 
the  costly  transportation  of  stamp-mills  while  as  yet 
there  wa..  nothing  to  stamp.     The  old  story  was  re- 
peated; for  a  while  further  subsidies  were  procured  with 
increasing  difficulty,   but  at  length  the  supply  failed 
and  the  operations  ceased.    The  well-known  politician 
who  was  ousted  from  the  governoiship  of  New  York 
^tate  by  impeachment,  ostensibly  for  what  he  had  done 
but  really,  as  it  was  generally  believed,  for  what  he  had 
refused  to  do,  is  said  to  have  borne  the  burden  of  the 
chief  expenditures  on  Chandalar  Quartz.    Pieces  of  heavy 


:1: 


4' 


I 


ill 


I 

J 


}\ 


I 


260 


zw  STORY  OF  A  COLLAPSE 

Ichincry  that  I  suppose  he  has  more  tj^l^  -^J^  ^^ 
one  else  lie  scattered  along  that  government  tra.l  all 

^^^Xr:rSLalar  Quartz  left  the  rr^^ 
Jh  ;he  Jdition  of  activity  in  which  -x.sts  tojda^ 
There  are  a  few  men  working  claims  at  the  head  ot  B.g 
Seek  and  on  the  creeks  that  issue  from  the  same  moun- 
^rs'and'flll  into  the  Middle  Fork;  ^^^J^^^ 
n  Trail  Creek  which  is  tributary  to  the  West  Fork,  but 
Tdll  tht  there  are  twenty-five  white  men  on  the 
whnle  river  and  that  will  include  a  few  trappers, 
"'th  re  may  yet  be  gold  discoveries  of  moment  mth.s 
HUt  ict   which  is  a  difficult  and  expensive  one  to  pros- 
p::      The     a^^^^  is  very  short  high  up  in  the  bare  moun- 
ts where  the  few  remunerative  diggmgs  -  -tuated 
and  witer  is  often  very  scarce,  while  the  -t  °  wo^ J- 
fuel  is  enormous,  so  that  the  ground  must  be  r  ch  to 
u     n„  return      I  have  known  seventy-five  dollars  a 
'    H  o^d  f^r  wL  at  the  head  of  Big  Creek.    Indeed  the 
cord  paid  for  wood  hindrances  to 

cost  of  transportation  is  one  ot  tne  grcii. 
^working  S  minerals  here,  as  in  so  many  other  pa 
'ci  Arska,  and  to  the  prospecting  for  ^he- J^e  J-" 
J        •«  unHer  wiser  operations  may  yet  be  prohtaDie, 
rrrt"yn^ne  really  knows  much  more 

n:':L:traCr^rMiieForkisre. 

ceivX^H  runs  roughly  P-»e.  ^h  the  mam 
St  IS  with  high  mountains  between,  through  the  midst 
stream,  »itn  nig  unction  with 

of  which  mountain,  ^'g  Cje dc  Jow  ^^  ^ 

the  main  river  twenty  miles  above. 


CHANDALAR  LAKE  261 

above  the  mouth  of  the  Middle  Fork  the  West  Fork 
comes  in,  a  short  tributary  which  heads  against  the 
South  Fork  of  the  Koyukuk.  The  main  stream  is  hence- 
forth locally  known  as  the  North  Fork  and  after  twenty- 
five  miles  more  of  rapid  course,  in  which  it  receives  Big 
Creek  as  aforesaid,  issues  out  of  a  narrow  lake  eight  or 
nme  miles  long  known  as  the  Chandalar  Lake,  em- 
bosomed in  rugged  mountains.  Indeed,  the  scenery  of 
the  upper  Chandalar  is  in  places  very  bold  and  pic- 
turesque, especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  lake, 
though  I  can  speak  from  personal  knowledge  only  of  its' 
wintry  aspects.  Above  that  lake  is  another  region  of 
extensive  flats  through  which  the  river  is  said  to  wind 
for  fully  thirty  miles,  and  beyond  that  it  nears  its  bead- 
waters  in  the  Endicott  Mountains. 


n 


iJi 


tV 


f    '   ' 


!)"'  ! 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  TANANA   RIVER 
The  Tanana  River  is  by  far  the  most  important  of 
the  tributaries  of  the  Yukon.    There  may  be  rr^alor 
li  h  another  tributary  from  a  g-^^P^""'  P.";""^ 
view   but  from  a  co.nmercial  point  of  v.ew  .t  .s  rnore 
Imltant  than  the  Yukon  it.elf,  as  regards  .ts  output 
T'^d  and  the  business  which  that  '-put  suppor - 
Probably  twothirds  of  aU  the  wh.te  ^^ov^^^^^Jl^ 
terior  of  Alaska  live  adjacent  to  .ts  banks     Statist  csot 
our  white  population  are  Indeed  skittish  thmgs  to  handle 
Td  g  nerruratio^s  based  upon  them  are  Uk^y  -  be^ 
only   immediate   accuracy;  it   is  cnt^ely   possib  e   tha 
Sween  the  writing  and  the  reading  of  these  words  .ome 
^Te:satio„al  gold  discovery  may  *ift  the^entre  o 
g«vity  of  the  white  population  a  thousand  mdes  a    a 
!^ke    as  'Z  was  shifted  for  a  while  by  the  Id.tarod 
t^o^de    but    such  a  contingency  aside,  tl.  Tanana 
R^    wU  P  obably  continue  to  be  the  most  important 
Hve    oT  th     interior.     An  element  of  stabdity  lacking 
a„;:here  else  is  undoubtedly  introduced  by  the  build- 
•nTof  the  government   railway   from  the  coast  to  its 
:Lr      and   unless   that    railway   be   extended   to   the 
Yuk"n  the  Tanana  will  probably  become  the  main  ar- 
ItZ  the  commerce  of  all  interior  Alaska--which,  how- 
ever, is  not  saying  a  very  great  deal  at  present. 

361 


CURRENT  PHENOMENA  263 

The  Tanana  River  differs  from  all  other  tributaries 
which  the  Yukon  receives  within  the  Territory  of  Alaska 
in  that  its  drainage  is  largely  the  drainage  of  glaciers, 
and  this  circumstance  has  consequences  which  give  the 
river  certain  marked  characteristics.  The  turbidity  of 
the  stream,  mentioned  once  before,  is  due  to  it;  a  tur- 
bidity so  pronounced  at  certain  seasons  as  to  make  the 
water  in  the  highest  degree  unsightly  and  distasteful; 
the  eccentricity  of  its  rapid  rise  to  flood  after  prolonged 
hot  dry  weather  is  due  to  it,  and  so  is  the  relative  short- 
ness of  its  navigable  channel  compared  with  the  total 
length  of  its  course. 

Nowhere,  in  that  whole  length,  is  it  other  than  a 
swift  stream.  Most  rivers  slacken  towards  their  mouths, 
but  at  certain  stages  when  the  Yukon  is  low  and  the 
Tanana  is  high  it  is  swifter  in  its  last  ten  or  twelve  miles 
than  it  is  one  hundred  miles  up,  and  I  have  never  seen  it 
really  slack.  The  Pelican  makes  any  ten  miles  of  the 
Yukon  within  its  territory  faster  than  it  makes  the  first 
ten  miles  of  the  Tanana. 

The  entrance  to  the  river  presents  great  difficulties 
at  low  water.  It  has  no  one  mouth  nor  does  it  dis- 
charge in  a  delta.  For  ten  miles  below  what  is  counted 
its  navigation  mouth  it  flows  roughly  parallel  with  the 
Yukon,  their  channels  being  separated  by  islands,  be- 
tween which  their  waters  commingle.  The  river  is 
entered  round  the  lower  point  of  the  first  of  these  is- 
lands, bur  I  suppose  its  real  mouth  is  around  the  lower 
point  of  the  last  of  them— a  long  island  that  stretches 
SIX  or  seven  miles  below  the  town  of  Tanana.     The 


1'. 


1  1 1' 


II 


la  * 


f'i 


ii 


REGION  OF  HIGH  WINDS 


passage  used  by  the  steamboats  has  a  very  narrow 
crooked  channel,  frequently  changmg,  and  .s  much  be- 
sf  by  sand-bars.  At  low  water  it  is  common  to  see 
boats  trying  unsuccessfully  for  hours  to  enter  the  nver 
'rd  they  afe  sometimes  on  the  sand-bars  for  days  at  a 

''^The  region  immediately  around  the  confluence  of 
these  rivers  is  noted  for  violent  winds.  R.ver  courses 
see"  natural  wind  courses  also,  and  here  two  of^he 
great  air  currents  of  the  interior  meet  aud  contend.  The 
Lives  lower  down  the  Yukon  call  the  -"ntam  bluff 
near  the  confluence  "the  place  where  the  wmd  beast 
lives"  He  pays  visits  to  other  places  but  th.s  they 
con  ider  his  pennanent  home.  As  we  begm  our  voyage 
of  the  Tanan'a  and  turn  the  first  bend  or  two  we  have 

vidence  of  the  fierceness  with  -^ich  ^^^^ -'i^'^,;", 
these  parts.    High  sand-banks  on  the  left  hm.t  of  the 
rive"  our  right  hand  as  we  go  up-stream  have  been  cu 
and  Ued  and  even  bodily  removed  by  .t;  trees  may  be 

,een  buried  in  sand,  the  tops  only  emergent. 

It  is  in  winter  that  these  wind-storms  are  particularly 

fierce  and  persistent,  and  before  the  mad  tra.l  was  cut 

t^  ough  the  woods  on  the  right  limit  of  the  nver,  wh  n 

all  tra'vel  was  on  the  ice,  this  was  one  of  t"t^  ^  ; 

tressing  and  difficult  sled  routes  m  the  country.     There 
s "ne  pcint  of  bank  which  it  was  sometimes  almost  im- 

posrible  to  pass  in  face  of  the  wind;  the  glare  .ce,  swep 

polished,  gave  the  dogs  -  ^^-""e- .f  JnTss  o 
man  ha^  had  to  thrust  his  arm  through  the  harness  ot 
the  leader  and  crawl  on  hands  and  knees,  draggmg  the 


u 


ENGINE  TROUBLES 


265 


dogs  with  him,  to  get  around  it.  In  other  places  the 
ice  over  a  large  area  is  covered  with  sand  blown  from  the 
banlts,  malcing  a  surface  over  which  an  iron-shod  sled 
may  proceed  only  with  the  greatest  labour.  In  the 
summer  these  winds  are  often  so  high  that  the  steam- 
boats with  their  shallow  purchase  on  the  water  and  their 
extensive  top-hamper,  must  tie  up  until  they  subside. 

Some  fifteen  miles  above  the  mouth  Fish  Creek  is 
passed,  draining  a  large  lake  that  lies  in  the  lowlands  to 
the  left,  and  here  the  Pelican  always  stops  to  fill  a  keg 
with  clean  water. 

Tributary  creeks  are  important  to  the  Tanana  voy- 
ager, since  they  provide  the  only  usable  water  for  drink- 
ing and  cooking  purposes.  Coffee  and  tea  made  with 
Tanana  water  are  undistinguishable,  the  mud  flavour 
predominating  over  any  other  infusion.  But  the  mud 
has  more  serious  results. 

It  was  this  condition  of  the  water  that  brought  the 
first  voyage  of  the  Pelican  to  an  abrupt  end.  Built  by  a 
New  York  establishment  chiefly  engaged  in  marine  con- 
struction and  knowing  nothing  of  any  river  but  the 
Hudson  (even,  as  I  sometimes  think,  refusing  to  believe 
that  there  can  be  any  river  that  is  not  a  duplicate  of  the 
Hudson),  she  drew  the  water  for  cooling  her  engines  di- 
rectly from  under  her  bottom  by  a  little  gear-pump  with 
lignum-viti  gears— a  most  beautiful  little  pump.  But 
the  silt  of  the  Tanana  not  only  filled  up  the  whole  cir- 
culating system  of  the  engine,  choking  the  pipes  and  the 
water-jackets,  so  that  constant  cleaning  thereof  was 
necessary,   but    gradually    cut   those   beautiful   lignum- 


: 


if' 


'Iff- 
,  I  ij,, 


!  n 


I  '    Ml 
II', 


REMEDIES  AGAINST  SAND 


i''MI 


i66  

,11  ,„  nieces  80  that  at  last  the  pump  would 
"Tlfrwat  r  tT  B^re  the  engines  were  practi- 
::  1  ' trtLuL  use  m  such  a  stream  it  was  necc^a^^ 

'''  rr;  P    '  ^t   -To  Jhc  ne..  and  then  through 
rheCst  wVeluc  into  another,  detaining  the  mud 
at  thrtottom   of  the   compartments   mstead   o     a 
bwng  it  to  enter  into  the  circulating  system;   and  .t 
lowmg       lu  lignum-vitae  gear-pump  by 

was  necessary  to  replace  tne  iignu  6 

a  common  plunger-pump,  not  so  ^'^^y ^^^V^lZ.f 
.ore  readily  repaired,  and  this  was  ^^^^^^  l^J^^ 
.placements  and  ^^^^Z:' t^Z^r^  all 

a  Lis    ;    continen't  to  the  same  house  agam    for  the 
across  tne  ^^^^^^  ^^^j  stanch, 

Ifc,  on  *.  Yuko.  and  !»  ..to™..  *'  '•  •'«"»• 

J  ,  K^ot  ac!  when  she  was  launched. 
'•"For^ng  ahead    gainst  the  swift  current  with  no  more 
than  fiv    mUes  an  hour  to  her  credit  despite  slc.rtmg  of 
than  nvc  luu  eiirker  water  and  in- 

banks    the  PMcar:,  towards  the  end  of  her  hrst  day 
1  iill  approach  the  Coschaket,  a  nat.ve  v.Uage  s.tu- 


COSCHAKET  VILLAGE 


267 


ated,  as  its  name  implies,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cosna. 
A  white  man's  corruption  of  the  name  of  the  village 
into  "Crossjaket"  I  mention  only  because  I  have  more 
than  once  seen  it  in  official  documents. 

There  has  always  been  a  settlement  of  natives  at  this 
place;  it  is  much  older  than  the  village  of  Tanana. 
Lieutenant  Allen,  making  the  pioneer  exploration  of  the 
Tanana  Rivf-  in  1885,  met  a  considerable  band  of  them, 
and  prints  a  portrait  of  their  chief,  Ivan  (who  must 
ha\^  had  that  name  from  still  earlier  association  with  the 
Russians).  Ivan  is  still  the  Coschaket  chief,  a  man  of 
much  dignity  and  influence.  Allen's  description  of  these 
natives  is  interesting  enough  to  quote,  as  giving  a  vivid 
impression  of  the  Tanana  Indians  more  than  thirty  years 
ago. 

"Their  appearance  in  camp,"  he  says,  "at  the  very 
edge  of  the  water,  with  thirty-five  to  forty  birch  canoes 
of  aU  sizes  fastened  to  the  shore,  the  abundance  of  rich- 
coloured  king-salmon,  split  and  hung  up  over  the  water, 
was  picturesque  in  the  extreme.  They  were  indeed 
cleanly  when  compared  to  us;  it  lecined  as  though  we 
had  never  seen  bedding  look  so  clean  and  comfortable, 
or  the  colours  of  calico  so  fresh."  Allen's  command  was 
in  great  distress  for  food  and  secured  a  seasonable  re- 
lief from  these  people. 

The  Coschaket  village  dwindled  in  size  when  the 
mission  at  Tanana  was  started,  but  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years  has  been  considerably  augmented  again  by 
migration  from  that  place;  some  of  those  who  came  up 
being  perhajis  moved  by  the  desire  of  getting  away  from 


J: 


I' 

.1' 


i, 

1 


4"  . 

mi 


i  III 


II 


,68  INDIANS  AND  PROHIBITION 

the  duwlute  surrounding,  there,  and  others,  it  is  .aid. 
by  th    de.ire  of  escaping  the  surveillance  and  rernon- 
.trance  of  the  mis.ion  and  even  the  .mall  degree  of  re- 
"It  exercised  by  the  civil  ^^^^^^  ^ 
easy  but  it  is  not  always  safe,  to  assign  n*"  '^"-'"J" 
white  men  or  Indians,  and  I  have  J«a^^  J"*"  ^J 
matter  of  liquor  amongst  the  natives  elsr^^here     The 
Tlv  houe  for  the  survival  of  the  Tanana  River  Indians 
Us'in      c^orough  execution  of  the  prohjbition  law 
lately  enacted  by  Congress.    The  visitor  will  note  that 
the  cabL  built  recently  at  the  Coschaket  mark  an  ad- 

-"^rS::^ofrCosna  interlock  wi^tribu 
t3rir:ftheNorthForkoftheKuskokwm.a„d^^^^^^^^^ 
Coschaket  starts  a  winter  overland  route  to  Lake  Min 

''w' after  leaving  the  Cosc^a^^^^^!  ^^f  J.^ 
ridge  is  approached  on  the  north  bank  of  the  river  at 
the  foot  of  which  the  channel  runs  all  the  way  to  the 
ZX:.  Slough,  and  behind  that  ^^f^^^ 
inland,  are  the  small  mining-camps  of  American  Creek 

^"•SrS^isiough  comes  into  ^eTanana  about 
.eventy-five  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  river,  a- 
conspicuous  point  where  our  course  up  the  river  leaves 

his  bold  ridge  and  turns  sharply  to  the  right  around  a 

Ir  at  stretch  of  flat  land  that  has  apparently  built  it- 

f  ou     1  the  bluffs.    Ten  -»«  «ip  the  wmdings^o 

he  slough  (though  it  is  but  one  mile  by  the  road  tha 
Z  bee 'cut  straight  across  this  flat  to  the  nearest  point 


HOT  SPRINGS 


369 


of  the  river)  lie.  the  town  of  Hot  Spring,,  the  centre  of 
considerable  business  from  the  neighbouring  miners. 

Hot  springs  are  not  uncommon  in  Alaska  and  do  not 
strike  one  as  so  remarkable  in  the  summer  as  they  do  in 
the  winter,  when,  at  this  place,  a  considerable  extent  of 
ground  IS  free  of  the  snow  that  covers  the  country  and  a 
body  of  water  disdains  the  fetters  of  the  frost  and  runs 
open  and  unconstrained  even  at  the  lowest  temperature 
-enveloped  in  steam  that  is  condensed  on  twigs  and 
boughs  in  ever-gathering  deposit  until  they  break  down 
beneath  the  weight  thereof.  The  water,  issuing  forth  at 
a  temperature  of  no  degrees  F.,  and  carrying,  it  is  said, 
little  or  no  mineral  in  solution,  is  employed  to  irrigate  a 
tract  of  ground  noted,  as  would  be  expected,  for  the  earli- 
ness  and  excellence  of  its  yield. 

One  curious  and  sinister  result,  as  I  suppose,  of  the 
peculiar  conditions  for  vegetation  which  these  thermal 
springs  produce,  is  the  growth  of  poisonous  plants  that 
I  do  not  think  are  found  elsewhere  in  Alaska.  The  wife 
of  the  local  physician,  a  few  years  ago,  pulling  a  small 
wild  tuber  from  the  ground  and  nibbling  it  as  she  walked, 
was  seized  with  violent  cramps,  and  shortly  thereafter 
died  in  great  pain  despite  all  her  husband  could  do. 
The  plant,  it  is  said,  was  a  wild  parsnip. 

Ten  years  ago  an  attempt  was  made  at  the  exploita- 
tion of  this  place  as  a  "resort"  for  successful  miners 
luxuriously  inclined  (to  put  no  other  face  upon  it).  It 
was  in  the  heyday  of  the  Fairbanks  camp  and  a  stage 
route,  passing  the  Hot  Springs  from  Fairbanks  to  Ta- 
nana  had  lately  been  established.    A  spacious  hotel  of 


'}, 


'ti 


1  ''1    . 

'if 


»• 


i 


!i: 


'!)'' 


1  ihl 


Miciocorr  resoiution  tist  chart 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2} 


I.I 


'I-    li^ 


^  1^ 


1^ 
■  2.0 


1.8 


L25  i  1.4 


1^  1^  11^ 


J     APPLIED  IIVMGE 


1653   EosI   Main   Sire. 


1 •609       US* 


(716)   268-  59B9  -  Foi 


270  MINERS'  PARADISE  LOST 

barns  and  p.gge  continually  supplied, 

unobtainable  in  Aiasica  migm  ^..-^pr  of  a 

and  altogether,  it  is  said  that  upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a 
S  on  dollars  was  expended.    But  the  speculation  had 
r     ucc  ss.  and  when  the  hotel  burned  down  three  o 
Jour  vears  ago  it  had  already  long  been  disused     The 
Chi  f  memorTal  of  it  that  remains  is  the  denuded  condition 
of   Xe  valley,  from  which  the  most  extraordmary 
fine  trees  in  the  interior  of  Alaska  were  cut  with  a  ruth- 
fesnesstiat  rankles,  in  its  degree,  like  the  burning  of 
Louva in    A  forest  and  a  town,  that  are  the  slow  beauti- 
^ulTrlwth  of  centuries,  make  -t  dissimil-  app^a  to 
men  of  feeling-and  to  the  quick,  irrevocable  axe  or 
S:h.  as  the  c'ase  may  be.  of  an  invading    ar^^an 

Just  above  the  "Hot  Springs  Landing,    which  s  at 

the  end  of  the  straight  road  across  the  flat  referred  to,  is 

a  bad  river  crossing,  with  an  ugly  -"f "  ,^f  "'"^,  "/ 

'on  which  it  is  particularly  easy  to  drift,  and  from  which 

:•    particularl/hard  to  get  off  on  a  <iown.st.am  pu. 

Th^  navigation  of  the  Tanana,  like  the  naviga 

Z  o'^yX ,  would  be  ^^^^f^^ 

setting  up  of  sailing  marks  at  points  like  this.    Turning 

::Z  the  upper  part  of  the  flat  land  we  com^ba  k  t 

the  bluffs  at  Baker  Creek,  up  wh'ch  "eek^tj^e  tek^^^^^^^^ 

an^e  formed  by  the  Yukon  and  Tanana  Rivers  and  this 


WOOD-CAMPS 


telegraph  and  mail  line  encloses  an  aren  which  i,  .en 
ra«y  aunferous.  and  many  creeks  in  it  have  been  CXd 
from  t.me  to  t.me  and  a  number  are  worked  now 

fu.  ^°°'^-l'T  ""'^  ^'^-^^''^'  "^  -""^h  more  plenti- 
fu  along  the  Tanana  than  along  the  Yukon  or  any  other 

th    one    ";"r^ '''  '''''"  ^'--"-^  -^ffic  encour  g 
i  K  ..T  J'  '"""'"^  °P^"'y  °f  ^he  water  the  othfr 

pmg  and  fishmg  as  summer  avocations.     Once  when 

a  season,  the  reader  w.ll  remember,  when  there  is  rea  Iv 
no  mght  and  conditions  of  labour  are  much  the  sime  lu 
the  twenty-four  hours),  unable  to  sleep  fo    th    In" 

Gdd^^itS^.  herjl^J-"'"^  -''  I  --  'n 
tu,  ^^*'  ^"«  agomsmg  wheel,"  that 

the  poet  never  contemplated,  and   started  the  enle 
agam  to  move  out  of  ear-shot.  ^ 

of  tie  N '"^  °^  *''^^°°d-camp  will  pass  with  the  opening 
of  the  Nenana  coal-field  by  the  new  railroad,  if,  as  there 
eems  no  reason  to  doubt,  the  confident  expecta  ons  o 
ts  prospectors  be  realised,  and  with  it  will'pass  one  o 

a   atder"^  °'  "^'?  '  '■^'"«  ^"'^•' '-"-  Alaska 

n     "d"       °'r"-  .^  '"^"  ^'"P'"^'^  "stone-broken" 
and     down  and  out"  could  hitherto  always  take  his 

an  hundred  and  fifty  cords  of  wood,  at  from  six  to  eight 
dollars  a  cord,  depending  on  locality,  could  readily  be 


i 

111 


GLACIER   DISCHARGE 


a 


'  li' 


had  none,  ne  couiu  ^^^^^^  „f 

tishna,  and  this  river      me     g       /  ^^^^^^^ 

fork  of  the  bearpaw. 


A  TYPICAL  "STAMPEDE"  273 

Away  to  the  westward  another  tributary  of  totally 

d.ffere„t  character  drains  Lake  Minchumina  one  of  t  e 

for  boats  of  hght  draught  into  that  lalce.     Lower  in  i's 

theytu'e       '"'"""^■^^"""'^  "^  '''S  8^-e  f--  which 
the^rr'  P"?'"'«  *"'  '  "''"'"g-'^amp  of  its  own  amongst 

of  one  hole  m  the  ground,  immediately  there  was  a  great 
here,  populated  durmg  the  following  winter  by  some 

tT;mo:r'"M""\'"  ^-"^^'^  ^""-^'^  ^''^^'-" 

httle  more  gold,  nor  has  much  more  since  been  found 
and  they  rushed  out  again  in  the  spring,  leavi/  he 
c.t,es  as  desolate  as  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  so  they  stand 
to-day  the  Rumed  Cities  of  the  Kantishna^Iacier 
C.ty,  Diamond  C.ty,  Roosevelt  City.  McKinley  City 
Bearpaw  C.ty     They  have  no  glamour  of  "Cold  LairS 

ctmh  T^'  '""  ""'^  °^"  ^""'"^  trea!  - 

chambers,  and  you  would  not  seek  for  a  "king's  ankus" 
amongst  their  ruins.  Miners  do  not  hoard  gold;  nowa- 
days they  get  their  pokes  of  gold-dust  to  the  bank  as 
fast  as  they  may  and  are  impatient  for  their  certificate 

he  Kant  shna  anj      .  after  that  first  sensational  strike 

nd  Alaska  .s  as  free  from  snakes  as  Ireland.    Ye     he 

-erted    dwellings,    the   tumbling-down   drinking   and 

eatmg  places  w.th  antiquated  calendars  and  rotting  ad- 


.   I 


:\i 


m 


I  ( 


,^^  THE  SEQUEL 

tive  mind.     1  he  moose  storehouses,  the 

them  at  will,  the  sq-^els  use  the-  ^  s  ^^^  ^^^^ 

owls  flit  in  -  -\;^;,'';i'^:rLabi.ity  and  tran- 
r.ot  only  P^-»7  f ;,  ;;^°;  „,  Baalbec,  but  in  their 
TTZ:  Is  h  Wn  helplessly  this  way  and  that. 
rtS:^^and.eran^..ss.^^^^^^ 

^'^Or^tXabout  a  few  groups  of  rotting  log 
cabS^nU  you.  Well.  ^VrS^Xve: 
the  foregoing  description  shal    ^^  f^f  ;y„f  ,,„,„ 

l,nt  "rities"  produce  their  most  pensive  effect. 

silent     cities     pruu  ir^ntishna  e  ves  readiest 

Tntn  all  this  hinterland  the  Kantisnna  gi 
Into  all  this  n  j,      j.^na  is  the  accustomed 

access-to  or  from  it  the  Ka  Coschaket. 

highway.     Indians  ^^omJ^2\^t  spring  hunting, 

wandering  across  country  ^'^^^'t^lj'  time  on 

p'^^*^rrmuLraUrkigb:::softhe  hides  of 

the  creeks,  its  affluents  and  m        g  ^^^  .^^^^^^ 

the  moose  they  h-^''f^>~i,,3  a„d  children, 

float  rejoicm,    """^^"JJ,,^  gentlemen  hunters  from 
Down  its  stream  come  also  tne  g  big-game 

New   York  and   Boston   bringing  out   their   Dig  g 


MUDDY  WATERS  ^7$ 

trophies    "for   the   Smithsonian."     The   slaughter   at- 
w"    :,°:''! '*--'''  °f 'hat  institution  mus'  aLdy 

tam-sheep   moose,  and  caribou.    Up  the  stream  go  the 
supphes  for  the  handful  of  miners  who  still  make  a 
■vrng  .„  the  camp  eked  out  with  the  plentiful  game  fo 
the  trappers  who  glean  the  scanty  harvest  of  foxes    hei 
own  s^chnine  has  not  yet  completely  e«ern:;:teX 

searcl  fo  'h'""'"""  "'°  ""■="  ''^"^  -"'-  '"eir 
search  for  the  precious  metal  among  the  foot-hill  creeks 

The  gasolene  launch  is  gradually  superseding  the  slow 

labonous   pohng-boat,   but  many  a  man  stiH  puts  hTs' 

wmter's  grub,  his  tent  and  stove  and  bedding,  E  s  do^ 

t  hVnd  1;  7  °f ''"^  '°"«'  '^P-"«  "^^^  -d  Propi 
his  arms  aI*"  T"""  ''^  '""^  ""^"'^^^  P*-"  °f 
thedn  u^  ""■"'''"  °^"^"  "''"^  '^'^^  -  a  beach 

th   dogs  may  be  used  to  help,  but  for  the  greater  part  the 
pole  IS  the  sole  dependence. 

The  Kantishna  is  one  of  the  affluents  of  the  Tanana 
respo„s.b  e  for  the  muddy  condition  of  its  water,  andTf 
t  could  be  ascended  to  the  head  of  the  tributar  es  that 

3d  r  f    r'"'  ""''"^*'   ^■'^  —  thereof 
would  be  well  understood.     Surprise  is  often  expressed 

X^:::::\r:'' '''-  ''-^  -^-intancr:: 

Jeers  on  the  Alaskan  tour  (and  their  number  grows 
very  year)  that  water  derived  from  the  melting  o/Tnow 
and  particularly  from  the  melting  of  the  high  snow  of 
mountam  tops  should  come  down  to  the  river  so  dirty 
-charged  with  sediment,  as  to  foul  those  rivers  ve'n' 
to  the^r  mouths.    Could  such  an  one  stand  by  the  side 


:i 


;l 


It 


II! 


-i 


276 


ROCK  IN  SOLUTION 


of  the  McKinley  Fork  which  issues  out  of  and  drams  the 
Muidrow  Glacier,  his  surprise  would  mcrease  to  see  hat 
stream  flowir,g  over  its  wide  boulder  bed  l.teral  y  as  black 
as  X  a  rushing,  roaring  torrent  of  as  evil-lookmg  water 
as  one  could  discover  elsewhere  than  in  the  discharge  of 
a  sewer  main  or  some  vile  chemical  works 

But  if  he  could  go  upon  the  glac.er  .tself   even  a 
high  as  twenty  miles  above  its  snout  (at  which  pomt  .t 
is  most  readily  reached),  in  the  early  summer  and   see 
is  surface  all  scattered  over  with  black  lumps  that  look 
ke  coal,  but  are  in  reality  a  kind  of  shale  wh.ch  shatters 
iown  frU  the  tops  of  lofty  granite  ridg"  cur.ously 
crowned  by  this  grimy,  partially  soluble  rock;  .f  he  could 
eo  there  and  spend  a  little  time  in  leisurely  observa- 
L  Lg  a  portion  of  the  glacier,  he  -Id  deduce   or 
himself  the   prime  fact  of  physical  geography,  that  a 
g  air  is  no'mere  drain,  but  the  greatest  excavating 
'agent  in  the  world;  is.  in  fact,  nature's  chief  chisel    He 
would  learn  that  underneath,  out  of  sight,  it  is  continu- 
ally digging  at  its  bed  in  the  bowels  of  the  mountam, 
wWle  o^top  it  is  continually  receiving  landslides  of  dis- 
Todged  boulders  and  shattered  rock  which  m  the  summer 
sun'sink  deep  into  its  melting  mass,  and  that  in  its  s^ow 
irresistible  movement,  inch  by  inch,  it  splits  and  sbrvers 
and  crushes  all  that  it  digs  up  and  all  that  is  cas   down 
upon  it.  grinding  it  as  corn  is  ground  in  a  mill  grinding 
ad  re  rfnding  until  its  attritus  is  so  fin-"d  ^o    h 
and  impalpably  pulverised  that  the  special  term     rock 
Sour'    is  used  V  describe  it.    Could  he  see  this  thing 
actually  going  on  as  evidently  as  he  can  see  that  a  plant 


i^r 


GLACIER  STUDY  j^^ 

is  growing;  and  realise,  as  I  think  only  such  personal 
«per.ence  „,akes  one  fully  realise,  that  the  glacisar 

w::m  be  to  ''' '"'''''-'  "''''  -^^-^  °' ' ""« 
in  tleir  H  T'  '"'""'"^  ''  '^'  sediment  carried 

Tras^nd  •""''"  J''"  ''  """'^  ''^  '°  «"<»  'he  dust  of 
brass  and  .ron  underneath  a  carborundum-wheel  and  he 

aTd  bla":  "•  rl  "'^  ^"^  ^^^'"'^^  ^-k  -  -  thick 
and  black  w.th  the  resultant  discharge  during  the  heats 

worS'whil'""""  "^'"'■"^"°"  °f  -  great  glacier  is  well 
wo  th  while  once  m  any  man's  life,  even  if  it  were  at  the 
cost  of  t.me  and  trouble  which  a  journey  to  thrMuWrlw 

mg  so  fertile  of  new  and  more  adequate  conceptions 
of  the  pnme  processes  of  nature  as  a  thoughtful  and  cT 
cumspective  visit  to  a  glacier. 

Although  I  knew  a  little  of  what  had  been  written 

water,    as  ,  boy  and  had  even  taken  some  interest  in 
the  famous  controversy  about  glacial  movement   fan 

r:ed)t"'  'T'  '■''"' ''''''' '°  ^'^  -^-Vi 

thT  ffect"^     "^    "':""  ^°  '  «'^"^^  ''^'1  ^"-""hing  of 
man  s  hi  jmer    had  upon  John  Keats.    It  was  a  reveh 

anho'T  "'?^'   ™^''^'"    '''^"   'he   catastrophes  " 

vlch  .f  ".  1"""°'  """'y-  ^'--^  -'ently,  inch 
by  mch  through  the  long  ages,  grinding  down  mou;ta"ns 
and    carvmg    out    valleys;    reducing    the   adamaml 


I 


"n  • 


it 


278 


VIEW  OF  DENALI 


primeval  granite  of  thousand,  of  lofty  peaks  to  soluble 
C  and  spreading  it  as  soil  over  the  low  places  of  the 
earth  Once  more  it  was  not  the  fire,  nor  the  wh.rlwmd. 
no?  the  earthquake,  that  was  pregnant  of  most  power, 
but  a  still  small  voice. 

Yet  if  I  could  take  the  traveller  from  off  the  uncom- 
plaisant  steamboat,  running  only  its  regular  route,  and 
carry  him  withersoever  I  wished-which  .s  the  joy  of  the 
?Zn-I  would   not   turn  from  the  upper  Kant.hna 
Ct  the   Bearpaw  that  we   might   visit  the  MuWrow 
Glacier,  for  we  shouH  scarce  come  w.thm  fifty  m.les  of 
S      best.    I  would  take  him  up  the  clear,  br.ght  arm  of 
the  river  that  draws  the  overflow  of  the  great  lake   and 
I  would  blindfold  him  until  we  were  far  out  upon  the 
lake  so  that  we  had  its  blue  waters  as  a  foreground,  and 
hen  I  would  suddenly  present  to  him  the  "oblcst  vjew  o^ 
mountains  in  all  North  America,  and  one  ^-^^J'^^f^^ 
blest  in  the  whole  world.    From  that  evel.  less  I  thmk^ 
than  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  I  would  snow  hm 
the  sheerest,  most  precipitous  face  of  Denah  and  Denah  s 
W     (Mt.   McKinley    and    Mt.    Foraker).    compan.on 
peaks,  rising  by  escarpment  upon  -arpment  to  ja^ed 
pyrar^ids  that  thrust  themselves,  one  nearly  fou    m  es 
S  the  other  more  than  three  miles,  into  the     stam- 
ess  eminence  of  air";   with  their  buttresses  and  r.dg 
their  connecting  arcades,  their  steep  slopes,  and  awfu 
headlong  pitches,  all  glittering  in  perpetual  snow      Th. 
sight,  the  finest  that  Alaska  has  to  show   is  h  d  from 
he  wise  and  prudent  who  travel  in  comfortable  state 
and  I  shall  not  pretend  to  be  sorry  that  not  even  the 


"GENS  DE  MONTAGNE"  j^^ 

new  government  railway  will  conduct  them  to  it     The 

Zl  T  "°  '""«"  P~"'*  "  •■•  h  demons;    the 

pro  pector  mterm.ts  a  while  the  propuL-  n  of  his  poling- 

from  the  Xanana  to  the  Kuskokwim  is  grateful  when  the 
wmd  disperses  the  clouds  that  so  often  envelop  it. 

Though  far  away  from  the  Tanana  in  this  part  of  it, 
course,  the  great  mountains  of  the  Alaskan  range  have 
always   been   closely   associated   with   this   river      The 
Hudson  s  Bay  factors  at  Fort  Yukon  knew  it  as  "the 
nver  of  the  mountains."  its  natives  were  called  "Gens  de 
Montagne     by  the  French-Canadian  voyageurs  of  that 
employ,  and  vague  lumours  of  its  lofty  snowy  peaks  are 
among  the  early  reports  which  came  out  from'  t'    "! 
tenor  of  Alaska      I  rejoice  that  the  region  has  now  been 
made  mto  a  National  Park  and  that  its  game  will  be 
preserved,  but  I  am  glad  that  in  all  probability  a  certain 
amount  of  bodily  exertion  and   bodily  discomfort  will 
always  be  required  of  those  who  would  visit  the  finest 
scenery  it  contains. 

I  have  indulged  myself,  and  I  hope  T  have  not  wearied 

farther  up  the  Tanana  on  the  other  bank  another  im- 
portant tributary  comes  in.  the  T  lovana,  and  at  its 
mouth  IS  a  trading-post  and  a  telegraph-station  and  a 
small  village  of  Indians. 

The  striking  difference  between  the  two  tributaries 
's  m  the  water  they  bring;  the  one,  as  we  saw  at  much 
length,  turbid  in  the  hot  weather  with  the  sewage  of  its 


^i 


ih. 


jfeil 


( 


;i 


ill 


'(.' 


I'l 


1 


I 


'I    i 


l';i::nl 


j8o  A  NEW  GOI.D-CAMP 

glacier.;  the  other  clear  and  limpid,  slish.ly  tinged,  it 
may  be.  with  yellow  from  its  mossy  w.x,dh.nds.    Th.« 
difference  i,  generally  characteristic  of  the  "'^""r.cs  re- 
ceived on  the  left  and  on  the  right  ba.,ks  o   the  Tanan  ^ 
All  the  larger  streams  confluent  on  the  left  bank  are 
glacial  and  turbid;  all  those  confluent  on  the  r.ght  bank 
are  clear.    It  should  be  said,  however,  that,  a  'hough  the 
Kantishna  has  been  taken  to  illustrate  the  glacaltr-bu- 
.aries   it  brings  down  so  much  water  that  does  not  come 
f  I  gl  ciers'by  other  branches  that  its  own  stream  .s 
not  so  dirty  as  some  of  the  other  glacial  affluents,  except 
in  times  of  great  heat. 

The  Tolovana  drains  Lake  Mmto,  which  .s  rather  a 
region  of  lakes  than  one  body  of  w.cer.  and  .t  receives 
the  important  affluent,  the  Chatanika   into  which  many 
of  the  gold-bearing  creeks  of  the  Fairbanks  camp  fall. 
Bu   the  Tolovana  River  has  now  a  gold-camp  of  its  own 
-the  latest,  and  it  is  thought  the  most  promising  camp 
of  interior  Alaska.    On  one  at  least  of  its  creeks,  L.ven- 
gLd.  a  rich  pay  streak  has  been  found  and  the  ou  put 
^he  season  of  1916  was  upward  of  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dor  -s.    It  is  unfortunate  for  easy  access  and  supply 
to  the  new  camp  that  the  navigation  of  the  Tolovana 
River  is  interrupted  about  eighty  miles  above  its  mouth 
by  an  extensive  and  inextricable  log-jam,  the  accumula- 
tion  of  untold  vears,  which  the  sluggish  meandering 
stream  constantl>  adds  to  but  is  unable  to  --ove^    A 
tram-line  has  been  constructed  around  .t  and  other  craft 
are  employed  for  sixty  miles  more,  involving  the  expense 
of  transshipment. 


KOX-FARMING  jg, 

The  chief  town  of  the  Tolovana  camp  rhus  reached  i. 

z:  n  ?::  "•  '^rj^'- "''''  ^-'^^  •-  ^caTof ; 

iiasKan  lieolocical  Survi-v—  ■■  ,.„_  i- 

«,!,„■«  .1.  .    -survey-  a  compliment  to  a  m.  i  to 

owX'i:;"!"'  '''^"°''--  °^  'He  interior  of  Ahs 
owe,  far  more  than  to  any  other  man  in  its  history     It 

that   L.vengood   and   the   Hudson    Brothers   he.an    the 

e7o7;2 " '"' ''«'°"  -'"^''  -"'-''  ■•"  'hrdL.;.': 

wi     ob'erv     r  ""'''^«"  '"'«»"  °^  '-ds  wo.k1 

wll  observe  the  w.re  enclosure,  of  a  rather  extensive 
fox-farm  a  l.ttle  behind  the  trading-post  and  tl     "o  d 
house,  and  will  thus  come  into  contact  perhap     ,o7  or" 
the  first  t.me  w.th  an  industry  that  has  recently  made 
extensive  appearance  in  interior  Alaska.     Th    s'^me 
of  .914  saw  the  excited   beginning  of  it.  whenTa^cy 
pnces  were  paid  for  dark-skinned  live  fox «  and  a    ol' 
hThe   "ad""".'"":-  ^-"'^  "--'f  with  more  Iney 
■n  the  followmg  wmter  sixty-three  permits  for  fox-farms 
were  .ssued.     Whether  this  business  is  destined    op Ty 
a  .mportant  part  in  the  economy  of  interior  Alaska  it  is 
ard  to  say;  so  far  I  think  no  one  has  made  money  b^ 
t.  but  there  was  much  to  learn  that  could  only  be  learned 
pracnc.     Experience   teaches,  but   often' charge^a 

have  already  been  abandoned  has  little  bearing  on  the 
future.     One  thing  is  regarded  as  established-that  ^he 
pnng  of  dark-coloured  parents  is  likely  to  be  dark- 


i 


:i 


'■?fe^=^ 


11 


ill  1 1 

!l:  f 


t.'i 


I 


^  !l" 


382 


MT.  DENALI 


though  a  pair  of  silver-greys  or  blacks  are  by  no  means 
sure  to  produce  their  own  colour.  The  difficulty  has 
been  in  rearing  the  pups,  and  that  is  probably  a  part  of 
the  prime  difficulty  of  reproducing  the  natural  conditions 
of  fox  life  in  its  essential  particulars. 

There  is  no  question,  however,  that  the  high  prices 
which  black  and  silver-grey  fox  skins  bring  is  due  prin- 
cipally to  their  rarity,  and  should  it  prove  practicable  to 
breed  animals  of  such  pelage  with  anything  like  cer- 
tainty and  regularity,  the  very  success  of  the  enterprise 
would  mean  its  failure  so  far  as  high  price  for  the  fur  is 

concerned.  ,, 

Before  leaving  Tolovana  the  attention  of  the  traveller 
may  be  drawn  to  the  view  of  Denali,  which  in  clear 
weather  this  spot  affords-especially  from  the  windows 
of  the  second  story  of  the  road-house.    Glimpses  of  the 
mountain,  now   and  again,  henceforth  may  be  had  in 
bends  of  the  river  where  the  water  presents  an  open 
foreground  in  its  direction;  but  they  are  fleeting  and  must 
be  watched  for,  and  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  photog- 
raphy of  distant  snow-mountains  wUl  commonly  refuse 
any  record  to  the  camera  of  the  tourist.    Upon  niy  first 
journey  up  the  Tanana,  the  great  mountain,  flushed  by 
the  setting  sun,  stood  out  most  prominently  m  the  gap  o 
the  river  made  by  the  bold  bluff  below  Tolovana,  and  I 
put  the  camera  on  its  tripod  and  made  several  careful 
exposures.    When  they  were  developed  they  proved  ex- 
cellent pictures  of  the  scene  save  that  they  bore  no  trace 
of  the  mountain.    There  was  the  steamboat  tied  up  to 
the  bank  in  the  foregound,  there  was  the  river  bluff,  there 


REMOTE  SIGNAL  STATION  283 

was  the  gap  beyond,  but  on  none  of  them  was  the  faint- 
est suggestion  of  the  glowing  dome  that  had  filled  that 
gap  and  delighted  my  eyes-and  I  began  to  learn  some- 
thmg  more  of  the  limitations  of  photography.  Only  a 
correct  combination  of  speed  and  aperture,  with  a  ray- 
filter  or  colour-screen  over  the  lens,  will  procure  any 
picture  at  all  of  these  distant  views  of  Denali 

We  leave  the  mountain  ridges  behind  us  at  Tolovana 
and  follow  a  great  curve  of  the  river,  first  to  the  north- 
east and  then  due  south,  until  we  return  to  them  at 
Nenana,  s,xty-five  miles  away,  though  it  is  no  more  than 
thirty  miles  in  a  straight  line.    This  stretch  of  the  river 
|s  the  stretch  least  occupied  by  any  sort  of  settlement 
between  Tanana  and  Fairbanks,  and  it  passes  with  ex- 
tensive bed  and  wide  expanses  of  drift-covered  sand-bar 
through  forested  flats  with  no  salient  landmarks.    The 
abandoned  telegraph-station  of  Minto  (built,  like  others 
on  the  Xanana  River,  in  the  absolute  wilderness,  because 
It  was  supposed  to  be  electrically  necessary  to  have  sta- 
tK,ns  exactly  forty  miles  apart;  a  superstition  which  the 
Signal  Corps  has  now  outgrown)  marks  the  half-wav 
point;  but  It  must  be  looked  for  carefully  or  it  will  be 
missed.    It  was  at  first  a  curious  experience  to  run  in  to 
this  station  where  the  two  Signal  Corps  men  lived  wi.b  .10 
neighbours  save  perhaps  some  encamped  Indians  for 
many  miles  around,  and  where  yet  you  could  communi- 
cate with  New  York  or  London  if  you  so  desired;  but 
since  one  usually  desired  to  communicate  with  Nenana 
and  the  socalled  Nenana  station  was  just  ten  miles  be- 
yond that  place,  with  dependence  upon  chance  passing 


i 


,    t  » 


I 


I: 


11, 


h 


I. 


If;' 


2g4  LOW  TEMPERATURES 

boat  or  sled  to  deliver  the  message,  the  convenience  to 

the  public  of  this  telegraph-line  was  not  as  great  as  it 

mieht  have  been.  . 

This  station  of  Minto  revelled  for  several  winters  m 
■he  fame  of  being  the  coldest  spot  of  all  interior  Alaska, 
its  sensationally  low  temperatures  were  telegraphed  to  the 
Fairbanks  newspapers  and  by  them  were  spread  all  over 
the  world,  until  a  traveller  provided  with  a  standard 
registered   thermometer  happened  to  compare   instru- 
mtnts  and  discovered  that  the  one  employed  at  this 
place  read  about  lo  degrees  too  low.    x.ast  winter  the 
station  at  The  Birches  on  the  Yukon  and  the  winter  be- 
fore that  the  station  at  Richardson  on  the  upper  Tanana 
claimed  the  same  distinction,  I  am  confident  on  no  better 

^'°itts  a  .mall  but  characteristic  Ulustration  of  the 
ineptitude  with  which  Alaskan  affairs  are  administered 
that  while  the  United  States  Weather  Bureau  makes 
provision  by  both  paid  and  voluntary  observers  for  the 
recording  of  temperatures,  furnishing  accurate  instru- 
ments that  are  correctly  exposed  and  carefully  read,  the 
reports  from  its  stations  are  commonly  sent  out  by  mail 
once  a  month;  while  these  Signal  Corps  stations,  fur- 
nished only  with  cheap  commercial  thermometers,  which 
are  nailed  up  on  a  post  or  a  tree  without  shelter  tele- 
graph their  romantic  readings  every  morning  and  an- 
nounce degrees  of  cold  that  have  never  been  authenn- 
cally  registered  anywhere  in  the  world  except  in  Northern 

'  It  was  said  of  Tobias  Smollett,  in  his  decline,  that  his 


m 


M 


!||ii 


li'; 


.i  J 


•'I  i 


'    % 


M.'i 


*t  J  I, 


THE  NEW  ERA 


38s 


comments  on  the  works  of  art  in  Italy  should  have  been 
reserved  for  his  physician;  similarly  it  may  be  said  in 
general  that  the  temperatures  announced  from  the 
Signal  Corps  stations  in  Alaska  have  little  interest  save 
as  showing  the  wide  range  of  index  errors  in  cheap 
thermometers. 

The  mountains  that  border  the  north  bank  of  the  river 
are  visible  a  long  time  before  we  reach  them  and  appear 
tantalisingly  near  when  yet  they  are  far,  and  as  we  turn 
the  endless  bends  towards  them  it  may  be  expected  that 
I  will  improve  the  time  with  prophecies  about  the  future 
of  interior  Alaska,  for  the  mountains  look  on  Nenana 
and  Nenana  looks  on  the  Railway.  We  approach  the 
visible  evidence  of  the  New  Era,  an^  what  writer  so  poor 
that  he  cannot  kindle  thereat  and  with  glowing  fancy 
expatiate  upon  the  wonders  he  foresees .'  But  the  pres- 
ent writer  would  protest  with  Amos  cf  Tekoa  that  he  is 
no  prophet  nor  son  of  a  prophet,  but  a  mere  fig-gatherer, 
and  will  resolutely  leave  the  business  of  prediction  to 
others. 

Tn  a  year  or  two,  if  the  Pelican  still  have  occasion  to 
use  this  part  of  the  river,  she  will  pass  under  a  suspension 
bridge  that  cost  a  million  dollars  as  she  reaches  Nenana, 
and  she  will  tie  up  to  the  wharfs  of  the  best-planned, 
best-built  town  of  the  interior,  from  which  a  Pullman 
car  will  carry  one  to  a  seaport  on  the  coast  in  a  night 
if  one  so  desire.  Crossing  the  river  by  the  bridge  re- 
ferred to,  the  railway  will  pass  northeast  behind  the 
mountains,  to  Fairbanks.  So  much,  I  think,  is  certain. 
To  my  thinking  this  port  at  Nenana,  where  first  the  line 


if » 


% 


it 


h  u 


Ml      : 


vii' : 


.:!..: 


i  SJ 


l!,'! 


I'.t 


j86  a  land  of  promise 

touches  the  navigable  waters  of  the  intenor,  will  be  its 
calt  minus,  and  the  people  of  Fairbanks  seem  to  thmk 
ZZ  iudgi'ng  by  the  high  prices  they  P.    f^r  Nenan 
town  lots  at  the  auction  sale  m  September,  1916-    But 
thTs  verges  upon  the  prophetic  realm,  from  which  I  am 
ba^ed      The  coal  will  certainly  come;  the  same  1  ne 
tht  carries  the  anthracite  coal  from  Matanuska  to  th 
stmships  of  the  coast  will  bring  the  b— u    -, 
from  the  Nenana  River  to  the  steamboats  of  the  mtenor 
and  some  small  hint  has  already  been  given  o    change 
that  this  will  cause.     It  is  expected  that  the  farmers 
wm  come  and  that  the  whole  region  which  the  ra  way 
traverses,  the  Kenai  peninsula,  the  valleys  of  the  Su 
hi:  and  Chulitna,  and  the  valley  of  the  N— .  w 
blossom  with  farms  and  ranches,  while  the  Broad  f  ass 
by  whTch  it  crosses  the  mountains  is  already  staked  out 
for  quartz-mining  on  a  large  scale.  ,     .    .„„  -_j 

Meanwhile  what  of  the  native  school  and  mission  and 
the  model  village  with  which  the  town-site  line  marches 
Settled  long  before  any  railway  --/^^jh   "f,  a  ^ 
deal  of  time  and  no  little  money  have  been  expended 
upon    hem.     The  establishment  includes  a  boarding- 
Zl  for  native  children  with  some  thirty  PUP^^^^-^^^^^^^^^^ 
from  the  Tanana  and  Yukon  Rivers,  an  infirmary,  a  con 
rrable  tract  of  cultivated  land,  chiefly  m  potatoes  for 
he  sch^)    and  all  sorts  of  outhouses  and  conveniences 
tw  th"  the  new  town  has  been  thrust  right  upon  1 
foThat  the  lower  line  of  the  one  is  the  "PPer  hne  of  h 
other,  it  is  no  longer  eligible  for  its  purpos  s.    Already 
the  pool-rooms  "down-town"  attract  the  larger  boys. 


A  SOCIAL  PROBLEM  .g^ 

the  megaphone  announcements  r.f  r„     ■ 

and  aci»  ,1,,  chiU™    ,1,  "  ""•"  "«™"»n 

selves  in  the  wdfare  of  the  In  '  '"'""''''  "^''"- 

proved  at  Moosehide,  at  Eade    ^t  C    7        n         ''" 


I, 


1 1 ' 


i 


JaI 


II  |4' 


I 


if 


ii 


n 


'ii 


■m 


t  lU' 


^88  CYNICAL  SELFISHNESS 

virulent  way  a  fresh  source  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^.^^j 

,  has  received   and  that  ^^^  ^^     ^^^,  ,„^,  „, 

selfishness.     Just  as  mc  .nreads  into  the 

h...  struggM  .o  carry  ,.  on,  must  .»  our  «  ^^ 

dU.«dul  r.J',  »  '•*  '°%"''rL"f  "c„,°ng  the  in- 
,™pe„  no  organ«..ion  »"'*■;;  ^J'17,b.„d„„ 
„„ducti.»  and  p.»ng=  of  th.  '■"■  »'  °" '^^,  „i. 

"'•Zlpr.o.cup.r-.on  w„h  .h.  N™  Er.  an^  rh.  grr.r 

work.  «.h  which  i,  i>  "t;"'°l'°„rr.hf  I  fb.„k 

,u  «f  a  considerable  tributary  ot  tne  icii.  u 
the  mouth  °f.^;°°^^''        ^3        back  half  a  mile  and 
without  noticmg  it.    i-et  us  g  ^^ 

gather  that  fig.    Lieutenant  Allen,  m  1885, 


IJ' 


^i 


':l 


^ 


iC 


i( 


'•I 


! 


1,     ,i 

'1 


i,l  i 


I; 


INDIAN  NAMES 


389 


Indian  with  him  to  give  him  rhe  native  name,  called  this 
river  the  "Cantwell"  in  honour  of  an  officer  of  the 
revenue  service,  and  it  so  stood  upon  the  maps  until 
the  mission  was  founded  here  in  1907,  and  then  the 
National  Board  of  Geographic  Names,  which  decides 
all  such  matters,  was  prevail.  '  upon  to  restore  to  the 
river  its  Indian  name,  Nenana,  by  which  alone  it  had 
been  commonly  known.  The  lower  Xanana  has  been 
more  fortunate  than  the  upper  in  retaining  the  beauti- 
ful Indian  names  of  its  tributaries.  Nenana,  Tolovana, 
Kantishna,  Chatanika,  Cosna,  are  surely  more  distinc- 
tive and  appropriate,  as  well  as  more  euphonious,  than 
the  Johnson  and  Robertson,  the  Gerstle,  the  Goodpaster 
and  the  Volkmar,  which  Allen  succeeded  in  fastening 
above. 

The  Nenana  is  a  clear-water  stream,  not  navigable 
many  miles.  Thirty  or  forty  miles  above  its  mouth  it 
passes  through  a  cafion  up  which  poling-boats  are  some- 
times propelled,  but  it  is  not  a  highway  of  any  travel. 
It  drains  the  foot-hill  and  valley  country,  though  its 
Yanert  Fork  pushes  headwater  streams  into  the  Broad 
Pass,  where  it  interlocks  with  tributaries  of  the  Chulitna 
which  drains  into  Cook's  Inlet. 

The  visitor  whose  steamboat  lies  any  length  of  time 
at  Nenana  is  advised  that  when  he  has  exhausted  the 
attractions  of  the  new  town,  it  is  well  worth  while  to 
procure  some  one  who  will  set  him  across  the  river  in  a 
skiff  and  to  climb  the  high  ridge  on  that  side.  Not  only 
will  he  gain  from  its  crest  (or  even  from  its  benches  with- 
out proceeding  to  its  crest)  an  adequate  conception  of 


■  i  I 


1;i 
I 


jgo  MISS  FARTHING 

the  wide  expanse  of  the  valley  of  the  Tanana.  but  he 
'l:^:Z  in  dear  weather  a  ,plendid  view  of  the 
lofty  peak,  of  the  Ala.ka  Range  m  the  distance.  Denah 
wm  'till  dominate  the  .cene.  but  the  great  serrated 
r  1  o  mountain,  will  stretch  far  to  the  south  and 
1  j:..,nr  i»  Mt    Haves.     Standing 

will  inci,  peaks  as  distant  as  Mt.  nay 
there  the  observer  can  trace  the  course  of  the  ra  Iway 
o  he  depression  of  the  .ange-which  indeed  is  almost 
an  obliteration  of  the  range-called  B-ad  Pas.  nd 
can  well  conceive  its  course  on  the  other  side  the  eof 
down  the  sea.  A  little  time  spent  thus  on  .xcasions 
w°il  give  a  far  juster  impression  of  the  country  than  the 
mere  travelling  of  its  rivers  can  ever  give. 

Upon  a  bench  of  this  ridge  may  be  seen  from  the  town 
a  large  Celtic  cross  of  concrete.    It  marks  the  grave  of  a 
vet  nob  e  gentlewoman.  Miss  Annie  Cragg  Farthing 
:Z  started'this  Indian  school  when  there  was  naugh 
but   a   rascally  liquor-peddling  trading-post  where  the 
toin  now  stands,  and  a  village  of  half  a  dozen  cabins 
hTddled  at  the  foot  of  the  ridge  on  the  opP-te  ban  ^ 
She  not  only  devot.-d  herself  body  and  soul  for  three 
yc  rst  the  children  she  had  gathered,  but  in  a  very  true 
Lr       he  laid  down  her  life  for  them,  for  her  death  ws 
d  e  to  the  shock  she  received  when  a  d-lute  ha  f- 
Ld,  inflamed  with  the  trader's  liquor,  brokcinto  th 
house  in  the  dead  of  a  winter's  night,  gun  in  h^nd   ■ 
tent  upon  killing  her  because  she  had  refused  h  m  a  g.r 
he  desLd  to  marry.    "You  may  kill  me  if  you  lik  ,  bu 
you  shall  not  have  that  girl,"  was  her  response  to  h. 
threats  as  she  faced  him  unflinching.    Her  brother,  the 


CURRENT  PRESSURE  j,, 

BJ.hop  of  Montreal,  and  her  colleagues  of  the  Alaskan 
m.,.,on  set  up  thi,  cro«  over  her  grave 

Our  cour.e   up   the   river  continues  to  have  rocky 

on  f  °"  r  f  ?""'  """  ''-'  "P--  "^  ^--'«'l  flat 
on  our  nght  all  the  way  to  Fairbanks,  which  is  seventy 
five  m.le.  above  Nenana.    Indeed,  this  is  its  general  de- 
.cnpt.on  up  to  the  point  where  the  Alaska  Range  ap- 
p^ache,  close  to  the  river,  nearly  three  hundred  mile, 

■ts  nght  bank  a  most  throughout  its  course,  and  I  know 
not  .f  .ts  general  northwest  direction  of  flow  will  be  held 
to  a.-ount  for  the  circumstance,  by  the  influence  upon 
he  water  of  the  earth's  revolution  on  its  axis,  sincef  a, 

hem'iddr"'!,  ."'•  ?'  ""'  -cumstance  obtains  in 
the  nuddle  and  lower  Yukon,  where  the  genera!  direction 

the  7  n  T':  '"'^  ^'  ''^"'  fi"''  ^he  same  thing  in 
the  Koyukuk  wh.ch  has  the  same  general  trend  as  the 
middle  Yukon.  All  these  rivers  press  on  their  right  oank 
nd  .t  .s  d.fficu It  to  account  for  it.  Certainly  tL  theory 
of  Nordenskiold  and  Nansen  fails  to  do  so 

A  number  of  clear-water  streams  draining  the  wide 
owlands  are  received  from  time  to  time  on'the  so  h 
b.nk  as  we  proceed,  the  Tatlanika,  the  Totatlanika.  the 
"ood  R.ver.  navgable  for  some  distance  in  poling.b;ats. 
he.r  mouths  dotted  with  fishing  encampments  anS  wood: 
pies  and.  of  late,  smce  the  building  of  the  new  town 

Lk  """"'/'•  "  '''^'""''-     '^^'  ^'^^'^S  "-"P^  6-ow  in 
tied      and  sue  as  we  approach  Fairbanks,  supplying 

and  hab.tat.ons  of  one  kind  or  another  are  frequenti; 


I 

1: 


I   t  > 

■I  I 


1,i 


n! 


i( 


%l 


IIJliM 

<! 


,g,.  ANOTHER  DEAD  TOWN 

passed  many  of  them  with  some  garden-patch  adjacent. 

^  is  now  out  of  sight,  but  lesser  and  -e  southej^^^ 

peaks  of  the  range,  still  far  distant,  are  visible  from  time 

to  time  when  the  foreground  is  open. 

Fairbanks  is  not  situated  on  the  mam  Xanana  bu 

on  an  island  made  by  a  slough  which  leaves  the  r.ve 
some  forty  miles  above  the  town  and  returns  to  .t  som 
ten  or  twelve  miles  below  the  town,  receivmg  the  B  g 
cLna  River  about  midway,  much  as  the  Chageluk 
Slough  leaves  and  returns  to  the  Yukon  and  receives  the 
?lnoko.  At  the  point  where  the  slough  returns  to  the 
Xanana,  Chena  is  situated;  one  might  almost  wrue  .as 
Suated  so  advanced  is  its  decay.  ^^  story  has  of  n 
been  told;  I  have  told  it  elsewhere  myself;  it  is  the  classic 
Alaskan  instance  of  short-sighted  greed  that  overreached 

itself  and  "lost  out."  . 

"his  confluence  of  the  main  river  with  its  returning 

slough  is  the  real  head  of  ^'"f  ^V"^^' Jf  "^  ff^ 
Tanana.    Some  of  the  worst  obstructions  of  its  farther 
Irv^ation  are  encountered  almost  at  once  after  leaving 
Chena  on  the  main  stream,  while  the  slough  is  navigable 
w'h  difficulty  as  far  as  Fairbanks,  only  when  the  stag 
of  water  is  good.    Topographically  Chena  is  excellently 
paled    with  high  river-bank  and  level  space  of  ample 
e  t ent!  the  ground  rising  behind  it  into  a  picturesque 
bluff  while  the  gold-bearing  creeks  are  close  at  hand  and 
e  s";  reached.    With  full  knowledge  of  the  county   .. 
aciUties  and  its  difficulties,  its  transportation  problems, 
he  occurrence  of  its  mineral  wealth,  the  needs  and  con- 
veniences of  its  people,  Chena  would  certainly  be  chosen 


'»  V 


1 1 


PROSPECTORS'  LIMITATIONS 


293 


as  the  site  of  its  principal  town;  indeed,  there  is  no  other 
place  that  would  be  considered  at  all.  Yet  Chena,  with 
all  these  advantages,  has  been  a  dead  town  these  ten 
years  past,  while  Fairbanks,  with  none  of  them,  during 
all  that  time  has  been  not  only  the  chief  town  of  this 
region  but  the  metropolis  of  interior  Alaska. 

The  stories  of  the  discovery  of  the  Tanana  gold-field 
and  of  the  locating  of  Fairbanks  are  bound  up  together 
as  would  be  supposed,  and  yet  not  at  all  as  would  be 
supposed,  since  the  second  preceded  the  first;  and  both 
are  inseparably  connected  with  a  trader  named  Barnette. 

The  eyes  of  gold-miners  in  the  north  had  long  been 
fixed  upon  the  Tanana  River  country.  It  was  remem- 
bered that  as  far  back  as  1878  Arthur  Harper  had  found 
"prospects"  somewhere  in  the  district;  the  Circle  and 
FoKymile  camps  reached  back  towards  it,  and  the 
scouting  advance-guard  of  those  camps  had  penetrated 
more  or  less  into  it — to  the  Chatanika  from  the  one  and 
to  the  Goodpaster  from  the  other.  But  the  chain  which 
holds  back  the  prospector  is  the  limit  of  the  distance  to 
which  he  can  haul  food;  he  may  stretch  it  a  few  links 
by  extreme  frugality,  by  the  address  with  which  he  can 
utilise  the  resources  of  the  country,  but  there  comes  a 
point  when  it  can  be  stretched  no  more,  and  that  point 
remains  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  gold-seeking  exploration  until 
some  more  advanced  base  of  supplies  is  established. 
There  was  no  base  of  supply  save  on  the  Yukon,  and 
the  intervening  country  was  rugged  and  difficult.  When 
the  Klondike  camp  began  to  decay  the  need  of  a  new 
field  for  the  energies  of  the  many  miners  there  became 


f: 


I 

i 


;    i 

! 

( 

{■ 

i  '• 
h  i 

i 

|! 

'  i 

II' 


29^  BARNETTE'S  STORY 

Dressing.     The  Nome  stampede  of  1900  relieved  the 
pressure  somewhat,  but  this  was  still  the  situat.or>  m 
,002  when  Barnette  with  a  trading  outfit  went  up  the 
Tanana  in  the  first  steamboat  that  disturbed  its  waters. 
Barnette  had  no  knowledge  of  the  river  nor  even 
definite  notion  of  where  he  wished  to  estabhsh  himself, 
but  he  was  anxious  to  reach  the  upper  Tanana  where  he 
could  tap  a  new  country  for  furs.    The  di^'-^l^^\°['^^ 
Bates  Rapids  above  Chena  turned  the  boat  back  from 
the  main  river  and  the  passage  of  the  slough  was  at- 
tempted.    Somewhere   in   the   neighbourhood   of  Fair- 
banks the  captain  decided  that  he  could  P^o«'d  no 
farther  and  Barnette  and  his  stock  of  grub  were  landed, 
despite,  it  is  said,  his  vehement  protests  and  expostula- 

tions.  T^, 

It  was  a  poor  location  for  a  trading-post.     I  here 
were  no  natives  in  its  vicinity  and  few  in  its  district; 
something  had  to  be  done  to  dispose  of  the  stock.    A 
little  prospecting  was  perhaps  attempted  on  the  creeks 
in  the   immediate  neighbourhood,  but  the  story   runs 
that  before  any  pay  or  even  prospects  were  found  a 
Japanese  in  Barnette's  employ  was  despatched  across 
country  to  Dawson  with  news  of  a  "strike,     and  this 
message  precipitated  the   Fairbanks   stampede  in   the 
winter  of  1902  and  the  following  spring.    The  men  who 
came  were  indignant  with  the  deception  that  had  been 
practised,  and  there  were  threats  of  lynchmg  Barnette 
and  his  Jap,  but  they  went  to  work  prospecting  the  coun- 
try and  it  was  these  men  who  actually  discovered  the 
gold  they  b.d  been  led  to  believe  was  discovered  al- 


RIVAL  TOWNS  295 

ready.  Coldstream  was  the  first  creek  to  yield  pay 
and  when  Cleary  Creek  followed  there  came  another  and 
greater  mflux  of  miners;  a  town  was  built  and  named  for 
the  well-known  senator  from  Indiana,  afterwards  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States;  and  the  winter  of  1903-4 
was  one  of  those  starving  times  which  mark  the  early 
history  of  every  mining-camp  in  this  country. 

Meanwhile  the  natural  advantages  of  Chena  had  at- 
tracted traders  and  settlers,  and  a  rival  town  was  started 
th,.fc  in  the  summer  of  1903.  It  is  said  that  when  Bar- 
nette  began  to  realise  the  extensive  promise  of  the  new 
camp  he  had  accidentally  called  into  being  and  the  in- 
eligibility of  his  own  town  site,  he  offered  the  settlers  at 
Chena  to  remove  thither  and  abandon  Fairbanks  if  they 
would  give  him  water  frontage  to  build  upon— an  offer 
which  was  scornfully  rejected.  I  know  that  as  much  as 
two  years  later  all  building  lots  were  held  at  a  very  high 
price  and  that  the  imminent  abandonment  of  Fairbanks 
was  still  an  article  of  faith  at  Chena. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1904  that  Fairbanks  had  its 
reasonable  assurance  of  stability  and  its  great  fever  of 
building.  The  federal  judge  had  come  over  from  the 
Yukon  in  the  spring  and  had  procured  the  building  of 
a  court-house  and  the  remr  -al  of  the  federal  officials 
thither  from  Eagle,  thus  makmg  Fairbanks  the  adminis- 
tration centre  of  the  interior,  while  the  discovery  of  yet 
other  rich  creeks  promised  an  output  of  gold  second  only 
to  the  Klondike.  From  the  first,  newcoming  tradesmen, 
were  welcomed  with  open  hand  and  allowed  to  stake  out 
building  lots  for  themselves;  lots  were  set  aside  for  the 


1- 
ii 

I' 

i 

I' 


If 


Mi 


2g6 


A  MINING  REGION 


government  buildings,  for  schools  and  churches  and  hos- 
pital- and  every  additional  business  that  was  established 
was  Ln  additional  bond  to  this  location  and  against  re- 
moval, until  -heir  cumulative  power  was  far  stronger 
than  the  natural  advantages  of  Chena  upon  which  that 
place  had  selfishly  and  blindly  relied;-and  so  an  end  of 

Chena.  , 

A  railway  from  Fairbanks  to  the  creeks  and  to  the 
river  at  Chena,  the  first  railway  in  interior  Alaska,  knit 
the  district  together  a  little  later  and  provided  for  the 
transportation  of  people  and  supplies  when  the  Fair- 
banks slough  was  too  low  for  navigation. 

The  visitor  will  thus  find  it  easy  to  proceed  to  such 
examination  of  the  gold-mines  as  his  time  and  inclina- 
tion allow.  He  will  find  extensive  workings  still  in  prog- 
ress and  more  extensive  abandoned,  with  the  usual 
melancholy  accompaniment  of  such  abandonment.  1 
dwelt  somewhat  upon  this  feature  of  a  placer-minmg 
country  in  the  Kantishna,  rather  than  here,  since  in  the 
Kantishna  are  few  left  to  shudder  at  a  memento  mon, 
while  Fairbanks  not  only  lives  but  confidently  expects  to 

live.  J  . 

Placer  gold-mining  in  the  north  has  worked  out  its 
own  special  technique,  and  while  differences  in  the  na- 
ture and  depth  of  soil  and  the  supply  of  water  involve 
differences  of  operation  that  are  of  interest  to  the  miner 
and  indeed  of  so  much  concern  to  him  that  upon  them 
may  turn  the  financial  success  or  failure  of  his  enterprises, 
there  is  a  general  sameness  in  the  processes  employed. 
"Pay"  being  discovered  at  the  bottom  of  a  shaft,  the 


PLACER-MINING  297 

gravels  that  carry  it  are  thawed  by  s-eam,  removed  by 
pick  and  shovel  and  wheelbarrow  fro:  i  the  drift  to  the 
shaft,  and  lifted  therefrom  by  a  self-dumping  hoist,  which, 
when  it  has  brought  the  loaded  bucket  to  the  surface,' 
carries  it  up  an  inclined  wire  to  the  top  of  the  dump,  and 
there  at  the  precise  moment  the  bucket  is  automatically 
tripped  and  its  contents  discharged  upon  an  ever-rising, 
ever-broadening  cone  of  pay  dirt.  This  process  contin- 
ues at  one  spot  and  another  all  the  winter,  until  by  the 
spring  a  creek  where  active  mining  is  going  on  is  covered 
with  conical  dumps  that  look  like  gigantic  ant-hills. 

Then,  when  water  is  available  once  more,  the  sluice- 
boxes  are  set  up  and  the  dump  is  gradually  shovelled 
into  them  while  the  water  runs  through  them;  the  gold 
by  reason  of  its  greater  weight  sinks  and  is  caught  by  the 
riffles  at  the  bottom  of  the  box,  while  the  lighter  dirt 
passes  off  with  the  rush  of  water  on  top.  If  conscientious 
care  be  taken  to  keep  track  of  the  gold  content  of  the 
dump  by  continual  "panning"  of  average  buckets  (or 
of  a  handful  taken  from  every  bucket),  the  operator  should 
know  within  pretty  close  bounds  what  his  dump  will 
"clean  up."  But  it  is  surprising  how  many  men  permit 
themselves  to  delude  themselves  that  their  dumps  carry 
much  more  gold  than  the  water  reveals.  The  tempta- 
tion to  pan  the  known  good  dirt  is  strong;  the  known  poor 
dirt  does  not  exercise  the  same  fascination. 

Improvements  and  refinements  in  the  methods  of 
mining  are  continually  made;  there  is  just  now  a  device 
of  underground  excavation  by  which  a  steam-shovel  digs 
out  tunnels  that  hitherto  have  been  dug  with  picks, 


U 


«  ' 


1 »  > 


'I    !i 


h  .;  i. 


298  DIFFICULT  NAVIGATION 

which  some  think  will  revolutionise  the  working  of  deep 
placers;  and  with  the  coming  of  cheaper  fuel  will  doubt- 
less come  many  other  economies  of  machinery. 

But  we  are  bound  yet  much  farther  up  the  Tanana 
River  if  the  Pelican  can  compass  the  voyage;  a  cache  of 
gasolene  had  been  made  during  the  previous  winter  at 
"McCarthy's"  about  eighty  miles  above;    and  there  ;s 
choice  of  routes  either  up  the  slough  to  its  issuance  from 
the  river  forty  miles  or  so  above,  or  down  the  slough  to 
Chena  again  and  then  up  the  main  stream.    The  obstacle 
to  the  voyage  up  the  slough  is  its  shallowness,  for  after 
passing  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Chena  its  waters  dwindle 
and  will  only  rarely  afford  passage  to  a  craft  drawmg 
sixteen  or  seventeen  inches.    But  there  has  been  much 
rain  and  the  slough  is  rising  and  we  resolve  to  attempt 
the  passage.    June  is  the  propitious  month  for  the  upper 
Tanana  and  this  is  a  wet  June.    We  make  good  time  to 
the  confluence  with  the  Big  Chena  (so  called  not  because 
it  is  itself  particularly  large,  but  by  contrast  with  a  smaller 
stream  of  the  same  name),  but  from  that  point  we  ad- 
vance with  increasing  difficulty.    The  freshet  water  is 
coming  out  of  the  Big  Chena,  the  course  is  very  tortu- 
ous, and  the  channel  actually  right  up  against  the  bank 
on  one  side  or  the  other,  with  overhanging  trees  that 
continually  brush  against  the  side  of  the  launch.    The 
pennons  and  ensign  that  proudly  fluttered  as  we  left  the 
water-front  at  Fairbanks— crowded  with  spectators  m- 
terested  in  the  attempt-are  taken  down  lest  they  be 
torn  off;  the  three  flagstaffs  are  themselves  removed  lest 
they  be  broken  off;  the  decks  and  the  roof  of  the  cabin 


NARROW  QUARTERS  399 

are  soon  covered  with  leaves  and  twigs  from  the  over- 
hanging foliage  through  which  we  are  forcing  a  way  and 
presently  in  one  such  arboreal  passage,  a  bough  threads 
Itself  m  the  rmg  on  the  top  of  the  starboard  light,  i.ooks 
the  lantern  out  of  its  socket  as  neatly  as  you  please  and 
drops  It  m  the  water.    The  open  windows  of  the  cabin 
and  engine-room  are  continually  invaded  by  the  green- 
ery, and  when  we  close  them  against  intrusion  the  glass 
IS  in  danger.     The  Pelican  soon  loses  her  accustomed 
trimness  and  her  condition  is  a  mute  appeal  against  such 
usage.     We  continue,  however,  to  find  a  narrow  way 
until  we  are  within  half  a  mile  of  the  head  of  the  slough 
and  then  there  is  a  shallow  gravel  crossing  over  which 
we  cannot  pass.    The  water  spreads  in  a  broad  sheet 
over  the  gravel,  and  try  it  where  we  will  the  depth  is 
insufficient.    One  of  our  boys  puts  on  the  rubber  hip- 
b'iots,  takes  a  graduated  sounding-pole  and  passes  over 
«ver/  part  of  that  crossing  with  the  same  result. 

There  is  another  arm  by  which  water  enters  from  the 
river,  and  we  drop  down  a  little  and  try  that,  but  with  no 
better  fortune.  It  is  tantalising  and  mortifying  to  have 
the  mam  river  so  nigh  and  yet  not  be  able  to  recch  if 
but  there  is  no  help  for  it  and  we  turn  back,  the  more' 
hastily  that  the  water  is  evidently  falling  instead  of 
rising  and  we  fear  being  caught  in  the  slough-unable  to 
return.  At  a  bridge  where  the  overland  trail  crosses 
the  slough  we  are  but  twelve  miles  from  the  Salchaket 
where  is  a  mission  to  be  visited,  and  here  the  bishop 
decides  to  make  that  journey  on  foot  and  we  put  him 
and   another   passenger   ashore,  ourselves   resolved    to 


IK 


if 


300 


BATES  RAPIDS 


w 


I 


V 


I. 


lit 


I': 


iV 


1/ 


Hi 


'km 


go  round  and  attempt  the  main  river  passage  and  picii 

liim  up. 

We  reach  Fairbanlcs,  crestfallen,  in  the  gloom  of  such 
twilight  as  the  latter  part  of  June  affords,  and  are  glad 
to  tie  up  unobserved.  Another  starboard  light  secured 
(we  do  not  nerd  it  now  but  shall  by  and  by),  additional 
gasolene  obtained  with  difficulty-for  there  is  shortage  - 
and  some  slight  repairs  made,  we  drop  down  the  slough 
to  Chena  next  morning  in  pouring  rain. 

Allen  named  the  long  stretch  of  broken  water  on  the 
main  river,  between  the  leaving  and  returning  of  the 
slough,  the  Bates  Rapids,  after  an  Englishman  who  made 
the  first  journey  of  which  there  is  any  record  down  this 
part  of  the  Tr.nana  in  company  with  Arthur  Harper. 
It  is  not  unlike  the  Yukon  in  the  Flats  in  that  the  water 
is  spread  over  miles  of  country  instead  of  being  confined 
in  one  channel.  But  the  Xanana  here  is  much  swifter 
than  the  Yukon  anywhere,  and  instead  of  large  spruce- 
covered  islands  are  innumerable  sand-bars  loaded  with 
driftwood  between  which  the  shallow  water  pours  in 
many  channels.  The  main  stream  does  not  sweep  around 
bends  as  on  the  Yukon,  but  roars  and  rushes  where  it  will 
amongst  these  bars. 

We  made  some  thirty  miles  in  eleven  hours  for  our 
first  run  and  tied  up;  and  the  next  morning  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  water  was  rising  considerably,  for  drift- 
wood began  to  come  down.  After  a  run  of  little  more 
than  an  hour  a  nut  became  loose  in  one  of  the  "inter- 
rupter levers"  of  the  make-and-break  cam-shaft,  and  it 
was  necessary  to  stop  in  order  to  tighten  it.     That 


:'■  :ll' 


li    t 


KM'ii)  Hinrri.in\';    \   ki  \\    nw-^    \rn 


i| 


1 1,  ii 


!J  1 


■  H 


hi'   1 


II 


I 


n\ 

.1"; 

I   ■*    I 

ml 

■m 


I 


li;  .1 1 


A  TIGHT  PLACE  301 

makc-and-break  ignition  lyjtem  was  a  lource  of  con- 
stant trouble  to  us  and  I  do  not  think  it  had  any  com- 
pcnsating  advantages.  Certainly  since  jump-spark  ig- 
nition was  substituted  for  it  we  have  had  no  ignition 
troubles  to  speak  of,  and  are  able  to  get  fifty  revolutions 
per  minute  more  from  the  engine.  There  was  always 
something  going  wrong  with  the  make-and-break  ig- 
nition. So  we  stopped  to  make  this  adjustment,  and 
while  endeavouring  to  set  up  the  loose  nut  so  tight  that 
it  should  not  again  jar  loose,  my  boy  put  too  great  a 
strain  upon  the  wrench  and  it  slipped  and  broke  the 
cast-iron  bracket  which  supported  the  sparking  mechan- 
ism of  No.  I  cylinder. 

It  looked  as  if  our  voyage  were  already  done,  and 
there  seemed  nothing  for  it  but  to  hobble  back  to  Chena 
upon  :he  three  cylinders  th.it  would  stil!  explode:  b-it 
the  absence  of  repair-shops  on  the  Yukon  and  its  tribu- 
taries induces  an  amount  of  self-reliance  and  ingenuity 
not  common,  I  think,  on  more  convenient  waters,  and 
Walter  has  these  qualities  highly  developed.    If  he  had 
a  block  of  hard  wood,  he  thought  it  would  be  possible 
to  shape  another  bracket  and  hold  it  in  place  with  wire. 
There  was  only  one  piece  of  hard  wood  on  board  and 
that  was  the  stock  of  our  shotgun,  and,  knowing  the  boy's 
resourcefulness,  I  gave  the  Word  to  use  it.     He  sawed  it 
<)ff  and  whittled  it  up  and  actually  succeeded  in  fashion- 
ing a  serviceable  bracket,  wiring  and  rewiring  it  to  keep  it 
in  place,  and  again  all  four  cylinders  were  exploding. 
It  was  a  very  creditable  exploit,  I  thought,  and  still 
think,  and  the  Indian  pilot  we  had  picked  up  at  Chena 


it 


|- 


'1    •! 


I'! 


pt'? 


f .' 


mt 


il  ^  ^ 


30J  DRIFTING  LOGS 

was  so  much  impressed  that  when  he  returned  home  he 
told  his  friends  that  "when  engine  break,  Walter  he 
make  new  engine  out  of  wood." 

But  all  day  had  been  taken  up  in  this  repair  and  so 
rapidly  had  the  river  risen  that  when  we  were  ready  to 
start,  the  little  island  to  which  we  had  tied  the  launch 
was  gone,  and  the  painter  was  fast  to  a  tree  st.ckmg  out 
of  the  water.  Worse  still,  the  drift  was  heavily  moving; 
in  addition  to  swift  water  we  had  henceforth  to  dodge 
trees  and  logs  and  all  the  floating  trash  that  comes  down 

with  a  freshet. 

Certainly  the  Pelican  had  never  been  set  such  a  task 
before,  nor  has  had  such  since.     In  the  very  gut  of  a 
little  rapid  between  two  sand-bars,  where  she  was  just 
able  to  stem  the  current,  here  would  come  a  log  swinging 
and  rolling  towards  her,  and  she  had  to  drop  back  and 
lose  what  she  had  so  laboriously  gained  to  avoid  a  col- 
lision.    Several   times  the  engine  had  to  be  reversed 
suddenly  to  escape  such  an  impact,  for  it  is  not  possible 
always  to  judge  with  accuracy  what  a  drifting  log  will 
do   and  the  sudden  reversing  of  an  engine  at  full  speed 
is  not  the  best  thing  in  the  world  for  the  machinery 
It  is,  h.-wever,  in  just  such  crises  that  the  stanchness  of 
the  Pelican's  machinery  gives  one  a  satisfactory  confidence 
that  it  will  stand  the  strain.    The  bracket  held  well  with 
constant    vigilance    and    occasional    tightening    of    its 

wiring. 

Mile  by  mile,  all  night,  she  fought  her  way  up-stream 
but  her  progress  grew  slower  as  the  water  rose  higher  ;  nd 
the  drift  came  down  in  ever-increasing  volume.    I  began 


DANGERS  OF  ALCOHOLISM  303 

to  doubt  that  we  should  succeed  in  ascending  the  river 
under  the  conditions  present,  ;>,,<^  [  knew  that  we  were 
passing  through  one  of  the  worst  (/  ii;  stretches  and 
that  above  the  Salchaket  th    jibing  grev  better. 

Then  we  began  to  have  trouDle  wit!   the  carburetter. 
When  all  the  gasolene  procurable  at  Fairbanlcs  had  been 
bought  and  our  tanlis  were  not  yet  full,  I  had  bought 
what  kerosene  was  procurable,  for  that  was  also  scarce, 
and  because  there  still  was  room  I  had  poured  in  five 
gallons  of  denatured  alcohol,  which  was  a  foolish  mis- 
take.    The  forward  tank  held  fifty  gallons  of  pure  gaso- 
lene; we  keep  the  forward  tank  as  a  reserve  and  do  not 
draw  upon  it  at  all  unless  we  have  to;  in  the  after  tank, 
holding  two  hundred  gallons,  was  this  pernicious  mixture 
of  gasolene,  kerosene,  and  alcohol.     The  kerosene  mix- 
ture explodes  very  well,  if  it  be  not  in  too  great  propor- 
tion, but  almost  as  soon  as  I  had  put  in  the  alcohol,  my 
mind  misgave  me  about  it.    I  might  almost  as  well 
have  used  shellac  varnish.    I  know  not  what  chemical 
processes  went  on  in  the  darkness  of  that  rear  tank,  what 
mysterious  synthesis,  but  from  the  perfectly  clear  liquids 
poured  in,  some  sticky,  gummy  substance  was  precipi- 
tated in  the  carburetter  that  interfered  with  the  action 
of  the  float-valve  so  that  the  thing  began  to  flood.    That 
meant  tying  up  again  and  taking  down  the  carburetter 
and  cleaning  it,  with  the  prospect  of  repeating  the  proc- 
ess every  few  hours.     So  we  switched  on  to  the  forward 
tank  until  the  present  stress  should  be  relieved. 

Shortly  thereafter  came  the  boat's  crucial  test.    She 
was  making  six  hundred  and  forty  revolutions,  which 


'!■   : 


.1 


' '  'I 


30^  IN  THE  DRIFT 

was  the  very  best  she  would  do  with  her  make-and- 
Tak  ignition,  and  she  came  to  a  drift-laden  bar  bes.de 
which  the  current  rushed  so  fiercely  that  somet.rr>es  the 
laves  leaped  up  to  the  forward  deck  and  -pt  over 
For  a  whUe  it  seemed  that  she  could  not  pass  that  bar, 
ignoring  the  mad  swirling  waters  and  takmg  a  tree  on 
the  dis?ant  bank  as  a  mark,  for  minutes  at  a    .me    he 
boat  seemed  stationary.    Then  we  edged  m  yet  a  htt^ 
closer    and  with  the  pike-poles  that  we  always  carry 
ought  the  bottom  to  help  her  by  pushing,  but  there  was 
Tbtttom  to  be  found.    Yet  a  little  closer  -"we  Pressed 
until  we  could  grab  some  projecting  pieces  of  drift,  and 
;:   a  precarious  purchase  on  them  with  the  poles    and 
!o  we  made  that  passage.    But  when  in  an  hour  there- 
after we  had  drawn  away  from  that  .lace  no  more  than 
a  mile,  I  knew  in  my  heart  that  the  game  was  up 

Could  we  have  stopped  and  waited  a  few  days  for  the 

subsidence  of  the  flood,  we  ^-1V"''m 't  "f  eVb 
Salchaket  and,  that  much  compassed  would.  I  judged  be 
able  to  proceed  to  the  Xanana  Crossing,  some  two 
hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  farther,  which 
was  our  hope  and  expectation,  for  there  was  a  mission 
le  to  determine  upon  at  that  place.  But  the  bishop . 
iLrary  would  not  permit  of  that  delay;  he  had  to  go 
to  Point  Hope  on  the  Arctic  Ocean  that  summer,  and  the 
revenue  cutter  Bear  was  his  only  means  of  doing  so,  and 
she  had  her  fixed  date  of  saiUng  from  Nome  and  waited 

for  no  one.  ,     ,        •,  „,„^ 

The  boys  were  as  reluctant  to  turn  back  as  I  was, 

and  I  think  it  was  as  much  on  Walter's  account,  that  his 


A  C'UTICAL  TIME 


305 


wooden  engine"  should  take  us  through  the  Bates  Rap- 
ids as  on  my  own  or  the  bishop's,  that  her  head  was 
.nil  kept  up-stream,  and  I  was  rather  glad  than  other- 
wise that  something  happened  to  turn  us  back  and  that 
we  did  not  withdraw  from  the  contest  merely  on  mv 
resolution  to  do  so. 

We  were  passing  another  such  drift-laden  sand-bar 
and  at  top  speed  were  no  more  than  inching  along  beside 
It,  the  Indian  pilot  on  the  forward  deck  and  Walter  on 
the  after  deck,  each  with  a  pike-pole,  while  I  had  the 
wheel,  when  with  a  snap  the  wooden  bracket  gave  way 
Its  cylinder  immediately  ceased  exploding  and  we  began 
to  drop  back  right  on  to  a  cheval-de-frise  of  drift-poles 
that  bristled  behind  us.     "Grab  that  drift,"  I  shouted 
to  the  boy  on  the  forward  deck  as  I  turned  her  head 
in,  and  he  grabbed  a  projecting  tree  trunk  and,  lock- 
ing his  feet  around  the  gipsy  windlass,  held  on  like  grim 
death  with  both  arms  while  the  water  swept  over  the 
deck  and  over  him,  and  Walter,  hurrying  forward,  got 
a  line  around  it.     Then  we  got  a  stern-line  out,  and,  re- 
leasing the   bow-line,  let  her  swing  down-stream,  and 
so,  with  engines  reversed,  dropped  to  an  eddy  behind 
the  sand-bar  and  there  tied  up.    The  damage  was  still 
reparable;    more   wires  were   wound  and   another  pur- 
chase for  them  secured  ;-there  are  no  limits  to  Walter's 
ingenuity;  and  presently  all  four  cylinders  were  at  work- 
but  we  all  realised  that  further  prosecution  of  the  at- 
tempt would  be  but  wasting  gasolene  and  courting  dis- 
aster. *■ 

What  a  wild  journey  that  was  back  to  Chena,  shooting 


'  i 


:1 

1 


I, 

1,1, 


IN'     I 


I'M 


og  NAVIGATING  RAPIDS 

!hc  Bates  Rapids  !-one  of  the  most  exciting  boat-rides 
the  «3"^  /^='P  ^i^i,  „o  more  engine  speed  than 

,^.  and  n»,h.,  .f  *■".      **  "  °    .^^  „,„„ 

A,r\r  to  see  the  world  stream  deliriously  by. 
°"  "That  felow  Bates  must  sure  have  been  .0..  tr..- 
,«.Mt^d  it  remarked  by  one  who  had  had  a  similar 

lene  enough,     bhe  dia  n  ^^  ^^^^^ 

could  not  pass  through  in  ^he  Bates  KP 

It  IS  a  baa         ,  ^^^^^  ^^^,  ^5. 


Ui 


|j<! 


m  d 


THE  RIVER'S  TOLL  307 

made  and  a  rush  to  that  region  took  place  in  the  summer 
of  1913  this  river  was  the  most  direct  highway,  for  the 
confluence  of  the  Chisana  and  the  Nabesna  makes  the 
Tanana,  and  many  boats  loaded  with  supplies  set  out 
from  Fairbanks.  Some  of  them  reached  their  destination, 
but  more  did  not,  and  I  counted  up  six  wrecks  of  steam- 
boats that  I  had  seen  or  knew  of,  lying  here  and  there 
on  the  upper  Tanana  in  the  spring  of  1917:  the  Koyukuk, 
the  Dusty  Diamond,  the  S.  and  S.,  the  Atlas,  the  Tetlin, 
the  Samson. 

It  will  not  arouse  surprise,  therefore,  that  the  river 
takes  no  small  toll  of  human  life.    Never  a  summer  passes 
but  there  are  several  drownings.    A  man  flung  into  these 
icy  waters  has  not  much  chance  of  escape;  however 
strong  a  swimmer,  the  current  sweeps  him  along,  the 
cold  cramps  and  paralyses  him,  the  silt  and  sand  begin 
immediately  to  lodge  in  his  clothing  and  weigh  him  down, 
and  unless  succour  be  prompt  it  is  unavailing.    One  of 
the  saddest  futile  pilgrimages  I  ever  saw  was  the  visit 
of  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  United  States  navy  to 
the  banks  of  this  river  a  few  years  ago,  seeking  trace  of 
the  body  of  his  son,  of  whom  all  that  any  one  knew  was 
that  the  young  man  left  a  point  on  the  upper  river  in  an 
open  boat,  alone,  and  that  an  empty  boat  was  picked 
up  below  Chena  shortly  thereafter.    I  met  the  father  in 
Fairbanks  arranging  passage  above;  I  met  him  later  a 
thousand  miles  away  in  the  Iditarod,  inquiring  for  a 
man  who  had  been  in  his  son's  company  on  the  upper 
Tanana. 

Our  northern  streams  do  not  often  yield  up  the  bodies 


I  « 

■  I 

\ 
;! 
ii' 

!i 

it!' 


IMi 


if 


O 


308 


FATE  OF  THE  VICTIMS 


of  their  victims;  the  temperature  of  the  water  .s  below 
that  at  which  decomposition  readily  takes  place;  the 
gases  of  decomposition  are  therefore  not  formed  and  it 
is  upon  those  gases  that  the  floating  of  a  corpse  depends; 
while  in  the  Tanana  particularly  the  excess  of  sediment 
finds  deposit  in  anything  that  even  momentarily  checks 
the   rush   of  water   and   offers   lodgment.     Sometimes, 
long  after,  a  body  is  found  entangled  in  a  drift  pile, 
perhaps  defaced  beyond  any  recognition;  sometimes  it 
is  caught  in  an  ice-jam  and  held  there  all  the  winter, 
and  perhaps  when  the  snow  melts  in  the  spring  an  Indian 
travelling  on  the  "last  ice"  will  see  a  projecting  arm  or 
leg  and  if  there  be  those  in  the  neighbourhood,  white  or 
native,  with  sufficient  humanity  to  take  the  not  incon- 
siderable time  and  trouble  of  extrication,  the  poor  remains 
will  be  given  decent  burial.    We  have  no  public  officials 
with  any  such  duty.    Our  deputy  marshals  will  not  stir 
unless  they  have  a  warrant  to  serve-or  if  they  stir  they 
do  so  at  their  own  option  and  expense-so  that  even 
when  news  comes  of  a  living  man  in  dire  straits   frost- 
bitten and  starving,  before  any  public  agency  for  his 
relief  can  be  set  in  motion  it  is  necessary  to  swear  out  a 
warrant  for  his  arrest  as  a  vagrant  !-a  grim  legal  joke 
to  make  a  "vagrant"  of  a  man  incapable  of  movement. 
But  I  must  not  get  on  that  subject  again. 

Forty  miles  from  Fairbanks  by  trail  and  perhaps 
skty  by  river  is  the  Salchaket,  mouth  of  the  Sakha, 
tributary  from  the  north,  and  here  are  an  Indian  village 
and  mission,  a  telegraph-station,  a  store  and  a  road- 
house.    Beyond  that,  another  forty  miles  or  so,  is  Rich- 


%i 


TRAVEL  DIFFICULTIES  309 

ar  ison  on  the  same  side  of  the  river,  the  decaying  town 
of  the  Tenderfoot  mining-camp,  and  another  day's  jour- 
ney on   the  trail  brings  us  to  McCarthy's,  just  below 
which  the  Little  and  Big  Delta  Rivers  co.Tie  in  from  the 
south,  draining  the  glaciers  of  Mt.  Hayes  and  the  two 
gable-peaks  that  rise  side  by  .ide,  known  as  The  Twins 
1  he  summer  overland  trail  crosses  the  river  by  ferry  at 
McCarthy's,  and  automobiles  and  stages  run  during  the 
season  when   road   conditions  permit;   the  winter  trail 
crosses  on  the  ice  near  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Delta  and 
goes  up  that  stream  towards  the  coast. 

A  few  miles  above  McCarthy's  the  Goodpaster  River 
IS  tributary  from  the  north.  This  is  one  of  Allen's  names 
that  has  been  transposed.  He  called  the  river  the 
Volkmar,  and  a  river  tributary  on  the  same  bank  twenty 
or  thirty  miles  higher  up  the  Goodpaster,  one  from  a 
colonel  in  the  army,  the  other  for  some  friends  in  Ken- 
tucky, and  they  have  been  counterchanged.  but  since 
the  names  are  retained  Allen  ,  purpose  is  served  and  the 
transposition  is  of  no  moment. 

The  extreme  difficulty  and  danger  with  which  this 
river  is  navigated  above  Chena  is  a  great  drawback  to 
the  mineral  exploration  of  the  country  it  penetrates. 
Wmtcr  and  summer  alike  the  river  is  bad  for  travel-  it 
freezes  late  and  breaks  up  early  and  its  waters  are' so 
swift  that  m  many  places  they  do  not  close  at  all,  and  its 
ice  IS  treacherous.  There  is  no  other  equally  extensive 
and  equally  important  part  of  the  interior  of  Alaska  so 
hard  of  access  as  the  upper  Tanana  country,  and  there 
's  none  into  which  a  good  practicable  wagon-road  could 


■i 

i 


3,o  A  CIVILISING  CENTRE 

be  80  easily  constructed,  for  the  left  bank  of  the  river 
for  a  couple  of  hundred  miles  above  McCarthy's  .s 
bordered  by  a  vast  flat  forested  country  reaching  back 
towards  the  great  mountains.  The  chief  «P«- jj 
be  bridges  over  the  numerous  streams.  But,  indeed, 
the  whole  subject  of  Alaskan  road  commissions  and 
Alaskan  road  expenditures  is  so  immersed  in  unsa- 
voury politics,  so  beset  with  "my  friends  and  my 
enemies!"  that  a  retiring  and  inoffensive  writer  who 
has  no  desire  to  be  placed  in  either  category  had  better 

'''  meTthe  Goodpaster  and  the  Volkmar.  the  Healy 
and  the  Gerstle  have  leen    eceived  on  the  right  lim. 
and  the  Johnson  and  the  Robertson  and  other  glacial 
streams  on  the  left,  the  great  mountain  range  begins  to 
draw  close  to  the  Tanana  River,  and  opposite  Lake 
'Zsfitld  and  the  Tanana  Crossing  (so  c^led  because 
the  military  telegraph-line  from  Valdez  to  Eagle  on  the 
Yukon  crossed  it  here)  they  loom  up  parallel  with  it,  a 
great  white  wall.    At  Lake  Mansfield  is  a  native  village, 
and  seven  miles  above,  at  the  Crossing,  a  mission  has 
b    n  established  that  seeks  to  serve  al    the  scanered 
Indians  of  an  hundred  miles  around.    Clustering  about 
the  mission  are  numbers  of  new  cabins,  and  the  place  is 
a  centre  from  which  Christianity  and  education  stretch 
out  their  hands  to  Mantasta  and  Tetlin.  to  the  Healy 
iter  and  the  Ketchumstock;  one  of  the  most  difficult 
and  expensive  but  also  one  of  the  most  promising  station 
in  the  whole  country-but  1  have  seen  it  only  in  the 
winter. 


THE  UPPER  STRETCH  3,1 

Above  the  Xanana  Crossing  the  mountains  draw 
away  again  and  the  river  runs  free,  with  less  obstruction 
to  navigation  for  an  hundred  miles  above,  it  is  said,  than 
anywhere  below  as  far  as  Chena. 


f  ■ 


I 


i  t 


11 : 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  KOYUKUK    RIVER 
It  would  be  a  matter  of  some  aifTuulty  to  determine 
which  is  actually  the  larBCst  ..f  tlif  tributaries  of  the 
Yukon,  the  Xanana  or  the  Koyukuk.  if  volume  of  dis- 
charge were  taken,   as  it   probably   would  be,   for  the 
criterion.     Many    measurements    would    be    needed    at 
many   different    times   during   the    open    season,   from 
the   "break-up"   to   the   "freeze-up,"   and    one    years 
determination  would  hardly  suffice.    Comparative  area 
drained,  which   might   be   another   criterion,  would   re- 
quire much  nicer  mensuration  than  could  be  based  upon 
any  existing  surveys  or  any  surveys  likely  to  exist  m 

our  day.  .    . , 

Nor  would  it  be  an  entirely  easy  matter  to  decide 
which  is  the  longest  tributary;  length  to  the  remotest 
headwaters  would  be  one  thing  and  navigable  length 
would  be  another,  and  the  term  "navigable"  is  tolerant 
of  several  interpretations,  particularly  in  Alaska.  There 
are  times  when  the  Tanana  is  navigable  by  steamboats 
(or,  at  least,  is  navigated  by  steamboats)  for  a  greater 
distance  than  they  are  ever  able  to  proceed  up  the 
Koyukuk,but  on  the  other  hand,  navigation  .s  possible 
much  farther  on  the  Koyukuk  than  the  Tanana  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  summer. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  Tanana  is  by  far  the  most 

3" 


iiJili  <yi 


KOYI'KIK   MOUNTAIN  3,, 

important  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Yukon;  it  may  also 
be  the  longest  by  some  standards  and  may  discharge  the 
greatest  volume  of  water  at  some  time;  by  other  stand- 
ards and  .It  other  times  the  Koyukuk  would  excel.  The 
two  main  differences  between  the  rivers  are  these:  first, 
that  the  Tanana  penetrates  far  to  the  south  towards  the 
coast,  its  hcidwatcrs  re.uhing  below  the  62d  parallel, 
while  the  Koyukuk  penetrates  far  to  the  north,  into  the 
Arctic  regions,  its  headwaters  reaching  well  above  the 
68th  parallel;  and,  second,  that  the  Tanana  drains  great 
glaciers  of  the  Alaska  range  of  mountains,  while  the 
Koyukuk  basin  has  no  heights  that  reach  the  line  of 
perpetual  snow. 

Having  replenished  her  gasolene  tanks  from  the  cache 
maintained  at  the  Koyukuk  trading-post,  the  Pelican 
turns  around  the  conspicuous  mountainous  bluff  which  is 
the  landmark  for  many  miles  of  the  Koyukuk  mouth, 
and  enters  upon  her  voyage  of  nearly  five  hundred  milel 
to  the  mission  at  the  Allakaket.  The  Russians  called 
this  bluff,  which  is  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  feet 
high,  "Koyukuk  Sopka,"  and  Lieutenant  Stoney  in  1885, 
for  reasons  doubtless  satisfactory  to  himself,  though  ap- 
parently unknown  to  anybody  else,  named  it  "Bene- 
laracher";  it  commonly  passes  to-day  as  the  Koyukuk 
Mountain. 

For  nearly  half  the  distance  the  journey  is  of  the  ut- 
most monotony.  The  current  is  slack,  the  channel  is 
serpentine,  the  banks  are  densely  wooded  with  scrubby 
trees  amongst  which  willow  predominates.  If  willow  were 
a  valuable  wood  the  Koyukuk  country  would  not  need 


•  i 


i\V\ 


I 


h' 


M 


314 


A  LONELY  REGION 


],J;j 


gold-mines.    Such  affluents  as  are  received  in  this  region 
are  small,  and  interlock  with  streams  flowing  into  Nor- 
ton  Sound  on  the  one  hand  and  into  the  Melozitna  on 
the  other.    Father  Jette  at  Xanana  could  give  the  In- 
dian names  of  a  dozen  of  them,  though  the  maps  mark 
but  three  or  four-and  could  explain  what  the  names 
mean.    Each  of  them  has  its  significance;  each  of  the 
streams  had  its  Indian  associations,  its  stories  of  hunt- 
ing and  fishing,  its  legends  of  warfare  and  witchcraft- 
for  the  Indians  of  the  lower  Koyukuk  were  noted  for 
turbulence  and  for  mighty  men  of  magic.    But  the  In- 
dians are  gone,  and  with  them  are  gone  all  the  associ- 
ations of  their  haunts  and  their  history,  save  such  frag- 
ments as  this  learned  and  industrious  philologist  has 
taken  from  the  lips  of  old  men  and  old  women  ere  they 
made  their  last  journey. 

The  chief  impression  which  the  region  will  leave  upon 
the  visitor  is  its  loneliness.     More  than  once  I  have 
journeyed  three  hundred  miles  up  this  river  without 
seeing  a  living  soul,  white  or  native.    At  rare  intervals 
are  a  few  dilapidated  moss-covered  cabins,  here  and 
there  a  little  group  of  overgrown  graves;  the  rest  is  the 
wilderness  untouched.    All  day  long  the  boat  ploughs 
the  water,  round  this  bend  to  the  left  and  round  that 
bend  to  the  right,  amid  numerous  islands  and  innumer- 
able piles  of  bleaching  driftwood,  driftwood  that  the 
next  freshet  will  transport  one  more  stage  on  its  long, 
slow  journey  to  the  sea.     After  fifteen  hours'  runnmg 
we  tie  up  for  the  night,  though  since  there  is  little  or  no 
night  it  were  better  to  say  that  we  run  for  fifteen  hours 


<  t. 


rt 


m 


NO  MAN'S  LAND 


3IS 


and  tie  up  for  nine.  If  we  are  fortunate  we  tie  up  against 
a  sand-bar  and  are  glad  of  the  chance  to  stretch  our  legs, 
for  the  cabin  is  confining;  if  we  must  tie  up  to  the  bank 
the  brush  denies  us  any  exercise.  And  the  next  day,  and 
the  next,  is  just  the  same,  a  bend  to  the  right,  a  bend  to 
the  left,  islands,  driftwood  banks  densely  thicketed — 
and  not  a  living  soul.  I  wish  I  could  convey  to  the  reader 
something  of  the  strong  feeling  of  loneliness  which  this 
river  always  leaves  upon  me.  It  is  not  merely  that  the 
banks  are  deserted;  one  knows  that  the  whole  country 
through  which  it  flows,  as  far  to  the  east  as  one  might 
choose  to  go,  as  far  to  the  west  as  the  salt  water,  is  wit..- 
out  inhabitant.  I  know  a  man  who  was  cutting  steam- 
boat wood  on  a  contract,  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  above  the  mouth,  and  from  September  when  he 
went  to  his  post  until  late  in  May  when  he  came  out 
he  did  not  see  a  living  soul.  And  all  that  winter  through, 
though  he  had  a  lamp  he  had  no  oil  and  not  more  than  a 
dozen  candles.  He  hailed  the  Pelican  as  we  went  up 
that  fall  and  asked  for  kerosene,  but  we  had  none  to  give 
him.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  many  men  become  insane 
every  year  in  Alaska  ? 

Nor  does  animal  life  make  up  in  any  considerable 
degree  for  the  absence  of  human  beings;  the  little  breth- 
ren of  the  wilderness  are  scarce;  rarely  does  a  beaver  or 
a  muskrat,  a  marten,  or  a  mink  ripple  the  eddies;  rarely 
does  a  fox  or  a  lynx  prowl  along  the  shore.  I  have  never 
seen  a  bear  break  through  the  brush,  or  a  mother  moose 
with  a  yearling  at  her  side  stretch  her  ungainly  head 
to  the  v/ater  along  this  lower  river;  the  birds  are  very 


I 


i( 

i  ! 


^.!! 


^ 


, 


'  l\ 


I's  '% 


f.  '!]■ 


m 


m 


316 


A  RIVER  MYSTERY 


few.    Save  for  the  sighing  of  the  wind  or  the  hoarse  note 
of  a  raven  the  river  is  silent. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  lonely  reaches  of  the  lowe 
Koyukuk  in  the  fall  of  .9.2  that  the  "Blueberry  K.d     s 
thought  to  have  murdered  "Fiddler  John'    (the   d  s 
coverer  of  gold  on  the  Hammond  R.ver)  and     Dutch 
Marie,"  a  notorious  woman  from  Nolan,  both  gomg 
outside  with  'home  stakes"  from  their  respective  oc- 
cupations, and  Frank  Adams,  whose  death  was  necessao. 
to  the  robbery  and  murder  of  the  others      The  la  t 
teamboat  was  gone  from  Bettles.  and  the  Bluebern^  K^ 
took  them  as  passengers  for  Nulato  on  h.  launch,  the 
miner  and  rae  prostitute  both  drunk  when  they  em- 
barked    -^l   alone  reached  Nulato.  took  a  steamboat  to 
St   Michael  and  so  "outside,"  and  in  Seattle  u  .s  saui 
cashed  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  gold-dust  at  the 
mint,  and  again  in  San  Francisco.    The  launch  was  found 
Two  years  later,  swamped  in  a  backwater  but  stdHW 
tla  tree-the  Blueberry  Kid  having  arnved  at  Nulato  m 
a  collapsible   canvas  boat   he  carried  on  the   launcL 
Two  years  later  somebody  found  a  little  heap  of  calcmed 
bones  at  an  old  camp  site  near  the  submerged  launch 
but  I  do  not  think  that  any  effort  was  -ade  to  de  e  . 
mine  if  they  were  human  remains  or  not,  and  the  Blue- 
berry Kid  is  still  at  large. 

?ears  before  in  this  same  region  a  lone  Indian  kdled 
a  white  man  who  had  taken  his  wife  away  ^o"*  ^.m- 
and  then  hanged  himself.    I  made  a  -—m 
the  names  and  the  circumstances  once    but      canno 
find  it,  and  I  have  forgotten  them.    One  of  my  old  d.ar.es 


THE  NORTHERN  SPRING  317 

with  its  jottings  down  of  all  sorts  of  things  that  have 
interested  me  on  my  journeys  has  disappeared. 

So  the  lower  Koyukuk  leaves  as  its  dominant  im- 
pression  a  deep  sense  of  monotonous  loneliness,  which 
the  recollection  of  these  sinister  associations  and  vague 
rumours  of  other  almost-forgotten  crimes  do  but  intensify 
The  river  is  the  highway  to  an  old  and  not  unimportant 
mming-camp;  its  waters  are  furrowed  by  steamboats 
and  lesser  craft,  but  the  stretch  of  desolate  wilderness 
they  pass  through  is  very  long  and  the  boats'  journeys 
very  mfrequent.  7our  sailings  in  the  summer  is  the  usual 
schedule. 

Yet  I  have  seen  this  region  teeming  with  life  for  a 
brief  season  while  the  migratory  water-fowl  were  on  their 
journey  to  the  Arctic  coast,  and  we  were  coming  down, 
following  the  ice  as  it  went  out  in  the  last  week  of  May' 
when  we  had  wintered  the  launch  on  this  river.    Spring 
was  almost  violently  arrived,  as  is  its  wont  in  the  north 
and   its  warm   hand  was  forceful  on  all  living  things! 
The  tender  greens,  growing  almost  visibly,  were  grate- 
ful to  eyes  that  still  smarted  with  the  long  glare  of  the 
sun  upon  the  snow,  the  sight  and  sound  of  flowing  water 
gave  pleasure,  and  never,   save  in  the  lagoons  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  have  I  seen  such  abundant  bird  life  as 
swarmed   in   these   solitary   reaches  of  the    Koyukuk. 
Flocks  of  swans  and  geese  which  were  but  resting  awhile 
upon  these  newly  liberated  waters;  flocks  of  ducks,  most 
of  whom  also  intended  further  travel,  rose  as  we  ap- 
proached, circled  about  our  heads,  and  swept  on  with 
bnk  and  cackle  up-stream;  loons  and  divers  of  several 


I 
t  > 


m 


i  ii 


i( 


r  t 


3i8 


ANIMAL  LIFE 


:i5 


Pl 


;ancties  disappeared  and  rose  agam.    I"^'>«  ^ffjj 

air  while  we  ay  ^J^^'^^'     ^,^^^^,  „p,o,ions  of  a 
other  ---  ^J^'J^^^^;';^^^^  its  exhaust;  every  few 

should  be  preserved.    At  one  place,  where 

dearth)  app.ano"  «»<  »»!«'»  »'  «'"" 
'-Z^trhunTS  and  «..  ««=•  f™  -k'  "* 


({  f  I 

J 


!( 


.1  If 


( 


l)  I 


iV:^i 


"4 


m 


II 


THE  HCXJATZATNA  319 

give  us  them  first  on  the  starboard  and  then  on  the  port, 
now  dead  ahead  and  now  almost  astern.  They  form  a 
shapely  group,  very  welcome  after  the  weary  lowlands, 
and  an  earnest  of  plenty  of  mountains  by  and  by.  Foi 
all  our  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  travel  we  have 
made  not  much  more  than  a  degree  of  latitude,  so  sinu- 
ous was  the  course,  so  often  did  it  leave  its  main  di- 
rection. 

It  takes  the  Pelican  full  five  hours  to  traverse  the 
"cut-off"  going  up,  and  a  little  less  than  two  hours  go- 
ing down— the  sum  of  these  times  is,  say,  seven  hours, 
and  half  of  seven  is  three  and  a  half,  which  is  very 
roughly  the  time  she  would  take  were  there  no  current 
at  all.  Since  she  is  making  better  than  eight  miles  with 
the  six  hundred  and  forty  revolutions  per  minute  we 
keep  her  at,  I  should  estimate  the  length  of  the  "cut- 
off" at  about  thirty  miles;  if  it  really  saves  twenty  miles 
it  is  a  good  gain  in  that  distance. 

The  current  has  now  increased  considerably  and  will 
continue  to  increase  steadily  as  we  proceed,  and  when 
we  enter  the  main  stream  again  a  little  below  the  Ho- 
gatzakaket  no  one  would  call  the  Koyukuk  water  slack. 
The  Hogatzatna,  confluent  on  the  right  bank,  which 
the  maps  corrupt  to  Hogatza  and  the  white  men  curtail 
to  the  Hog  River,  is  the  most  considerable  tributary  the 
Koyukuk  has  yet  received— Hogatzakaket  or  Hogat- 
zachaket  is  its  mouth;  the  native  speech  of  these  parts 
being  the  same  as  that  of  the  middle  Yukon.  The  Hogat- 
zakaket is  reckoned  at  some  three  hundred  miles  from  the 
Yukon,  and  lies  just  on  the  66th  parallel  of  latitude. 


ii 


id 


a 


i    V  J-1 


f 


j,0  A  RARE  EXPERIENCE 

thoueh  after  touching  it  the  river  bends  to  the  southeast 
aga^  and  does  not  definitely  cross  it  for  another  twenty 
fif.  miles     The  Hogatzatna  has  tributar.es  that  mter- 
follh  tributaries'of  the  Kobuk.  and  affords  a  route 
fo  Kotzebue  Sound  and  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

U  was  when  we  had  been  tied  up  near  Hogatzakake 
one  nieht  that  the  boy  in  the  engine-room,  nsmg  m  the 
mornSbefore  the  rest  of  us  to  get  the  boat  un^,  way 
saw  a  sight  I  would  have  given  a  good  deal  to  see^   A 
aTge  eagle  that  had  been  perched  upon  a  tree  swooped 
drn  into  the  water,  seized  a  salmon  in  us  talons,  and 
oTe  with  it.  flying  off  to  a  height  of  rock  where  .tr- 
ably  had  its  nest.    His  excited  descr.pt.on  of  the  plunge 
to  the  stream,  the  beating  of  the  bird's  wmgs  upon 
he  water  as  it  emerged  with  its  prey,  the  struggles  of 
h   gr    t  fi     Is  the  bid  rose,  the  flashing  of  its  dnppmg 
Jver  scales  in  the  sunshine  as  it  twisted  and  squ.rmed, 
ir  rem    d  us  effort  the  bird  had  to  put  forth  to  bear 
Ualofl  made  us  all  envious  of  the  good  fortune  of  the 

"lomedmes  upon  reflection  one  is  surprised  at  the 
rareneTs  with  M  the  common  sights  of  the  wdderness 
ar    s  en.    This,  for  instance,  must  be  a  common  th.ng 
am"   always  Accomplished  in  much  the  same  way  w,th 
aSompanim'ent  of  sp!    hing  and  disturbance,  yet  I   h.n 
Jew  have  ever  seen  it.    After  ten  wmters  spent  almo.t 
Xly  in  travel  over  the  trail  in  all  parts  of  the  mter.or 
Thavl  never  seen  a  live  wolf,  though  I  have  o  ten  seen 
a'clss  of  a  caribou  which  had  been  part^Uy    -"^ 
by  wolves,  and  have  been  kept  awake  by  their  how 


EXPERTS  DISAGREE  33, 

ing.    And  I  know  at  least  one  full-grown  Indian,  hunter 
and  trapper  from  boyhood,  who  has  never  seen  a  live  wolf 
save  m  a  trap.    The  same  i,  true  in  even  greater  degree 
of  the  wolverme,  the  most  destructive  and  most  crafty  of 
all  our  predaceous  animals-and  the  most  hated  in  con- 
sequence.    It   is   somewhat   less   remarkable,   however, 
that  prowlers  of  the  night  should  be  so  rarely  observed 
than  that  the  great  diurnal  bird  of  prey  which  subsists 
largely  on  fish  m  the  summer  should  be  able  to  conceal 
h.s  operations  so  closely.     I  have  seen  bears  catching 
fish    a  lynx  and  a  fox  catching  fish.  I  have  seen  dogs 
catching  fish,  I  have  seen  the  remains  of  a  fish  that  an 
eagle  had  devoured,  but  the  swoop  of  the  eagle  into  the 
water  I  have  never  seen,  and  I  would  rather  see  it  once 
than  have  dead  specimens  of  all  the  varieties  of  eagles 
■n    the    world    carefully   stuflFed    and    mounted       Live 
creatures  of  all  kinds  have  intense  interest  for  me   but 
when  they  are  dead  they  have  very  little;  and  certainly 
a  well-pamted  picture  of  an  eagle  or  a  well-carved  fig- 
ure gives  me  much  more  pleasure  than  the  poor  actua' 
bones  and  feathers,  however  artfully  wired  and  glued 
together  and  provided  with  glass  eyes,  varnished  claws 
and  a  belly  full  of  sawdust. 

There  was  much  discussion  of  the  incident  I 
thought  that  little  more  than  the  talons  of  the  eagle 
could  have  entered  the  water  and  that  the  fish  must 
have  been  seized  in  the  swoop  as  I  have  seen  a  tame  owl 
se'ze  a  rat,  without  pause  in  flight,  but  Arthur  declared 
that  the  bird  went  down  under  the  water  to  get  the  fish 
and  described  the  strenuous  flappings  that  were  neces- 


i 
I 

>i 
tl 

ill 


if 


)     !. 


i  t 


!li1 


BLIZZARD  REMINISCENCES 


l:'? 


I*!  for  him  to  ri«  again.    The  box  wa.  .urpri«d  and 
sary  lor  nun  »  diitance  off, 

r  jhirShX a:;:;^  tc  -.  ana .... 

'irntum  of  the  original  ..woop  -«J--"f   ^Vof 
lift  bird  and  fi.h  a  little  into  the  a.r  again.    TJ;    J'  ° 
Z  wings  would  doubtless  beat  ^^^^--^ta  'ma 
a  fr«h  start  with  even  a  ten-pound  burden  was  mauc 
"^*  ""^h.,  .hough,  .h.  h.h  -"  "If^"- 

r.:r.t!ir;i'r»ir,s.-..h>. 

:=r.2^^r;r.hr£r^^^^^^^^ 
-^r:;:^rorrrrJr.;sr:.. - 


ALLEN'S  JOURNEY  323 

of  the  voyage,  off  which  we  lay  when  we  woke  up  on  the 
23d  of  September  to  find  ourselves  frozen  in.  and  into 
which  we  warped  the  launch  laboriously  with  a  "Span- 
ish  windlass"  and  made  her  snug  for  the  winter  when  it 
became  evident  that  we  could  not  hope  to  proceed 
Beside  It  IS  Martin  Nelson's  little  hut  that  wc  helped  him 
build,  and  there  is  the  cache  on  which  we  stored  the  freight 
and  gear.    And  ahead  of  us  for  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  or  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  wind  the  reaches  of 
the  river,  over  the  "first  ice"  of  which  we  pulled  a  sled 
by  the  back  of  the  neck  "  at  all  sorts  of  hazard  two  weeks 
later,  as  I  have  described  in  another  book. 

Twenty  miles  or  so  farther  comes  in  the  Batzatna, 
and  near  it  on  the  map  I  am  using  just  now  is  boldly 
imprmted  "Muggins  Island,"  which  brings  Lieutenant 
Allen  on  the  scene  again  and  opens  a  whole  new  chapter 
of  Koyukuk  history  and  geography  to  those  who  care 
to  pursue  it.  We  met  Lieutenant  Allen  on  the  Tanana 
River,  and  the  reader  will  recall  that  remarkable  journey 
of  his,  one  of  the  most  important  and  venturesome  of 
the  early  explorations  of  the  interior,  which  gave  the 
world  the  first  definite  knowledge  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  two  largest  tributaries  of  the  Alaskan  Yukon.  But 
I  had  better  reserve  him  till  we  reach  the  point  where  he 
first  reached  the  Koyukuk. 

I  have  mentioned  him  here  because  we  are  approach- 
ing a  place  where  a  few  years  ago  the  white  men  started 
a  town  which  they  called  Hughes  City,  now  already  de- 
serted. Gold  was  found  on  a  creek  tributary  to  a  stream 
called  Indian  River,  confluent  on  the  east  bank,  and 


t 

i 


'I, 


PIONEER  EXPLORATION 


?  'i  ! 


3*4  . 

a  small  camp  was  started  and  this  ^wn  -s  .ts  ^^^^J 
pot  and  port  while  the  diggings  yielded.    Allen  m  i88S 
S    L  Lself  the  first  white  man  that  »-    -"  b^^ 
on  this  part  of  the  Koyukuk,  a  matter  m  wh.ch  explorers 
ometil  delude  themselves,  but  the  P'o-r  P-pe^ 
tor  was  before  him,  if  a  tradition  amongst  the  old-t.me 
w'ite  men  be  true,  and  Hughes  Bar  -  t^.s  v   m.y 
is  the  site  of  the  first  gold-workmg  on  the  nver  and 
Ts  named  for  a  man  who,  it  is  said,  came  up  a  year 
Tefore  Allen.    I  have  no  means  of  determ.nmg  the  mat- 
ter nor  do  I  think  such  means  ex.st  to-day,  and  .    .s 
of  no   mportance.     I  mention  it  mere  y  as  a  trad.non 
L  Kovukuk     The  town,  which  dates  from  1910, 
ll  hSeen  named  in  honour  of  this  man,  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  was  named  for  the  then  governor  of  the 
"tate  of  New  York.    It  does  not  really  detract  from  the 
^::Jo^  exploration  that  some  one  else  has  already 
passed  through  the  region  explored,  and  it  may  sately 
Ee  safd  that  there  are  very  few  parts  of  the  mter.or  that 
wee  nof visited  by  prospectors  before  they  were  .sued 
r    ,n„nneelse     These  men  made  no  maps  and  left  no 

:^::^::;Lt:ridwas.t.e..r^.^^^^^^ 

SuT'orprirs  ttir  have  t.d  me  that 
uponTeaching'some  remote  creek  -to  -h.ch  they  .m- 
.Led  "they  were  the  first  that  ever  burst  perhaps  a 
r^^fra  ment  of  iron  implement,  an  almost  obhterate 
Tt  quite  unmistakable  disturbance  of  the  surface,  or 
weathered  axe-mark  upon  a  tree,  would  bear  mute  on- 
dus  ve  wtness  to  the  priority  of  others.    In  this  Ind.an 


m 


t 


iLi 


RED  MOUNTAIN  325 

River  camp  behind  Hughes  City  the  miners  say  they 
found  Signs  of  earlier  working,  quite  forgotten  even  of 
mmers'  tradition. 

The  life  of  Hughes  City  was  brief  even  for  a  placer- 
minmg  town.  Started  in  19,0,  it  was  almost  deserted  in 
191S.  though  in  1917  a  little  store  still  languishes;  pres- 
ently the  natives  attracted  hither  will  return  to  their  old 
haunts  with  some  half-breed  children  and  some  chronic 
diseases,  and  the  wilderness  will  resume  its  own. 

Ten  miles  or  so  above  Hughes  City  one  of  the  first 
real  difficulties  of  Koyukuk  navigation  is  encountered 
At  the  lower  end  of  an  island  which  divides  the  stream 
there  is  a  sharp  declivity  in  its  bed  which  at  the  same 
time  turns  at  almost  a  right  angle,  so  that  for  a  short 
distance  there  is  a  veritable  rapid,  in  the  midst  of  which 
It  IS  necessary  to  swing  the  hozc  half  round.  This  bad 
water  is  known  by  the  expressive  name  of  "The  Measlv 
Chute."  ' 

The  next  point  of  interest  is  Red  Mountain,  a  bare- 
topped  bluff  described  by  its  name,  which  serves  as  a  land- 
mark.   For  some  distance  past  we  have  met  small  groups 
of  natives  camped  upon  the  bank  fishing  with  nets.    The 
Koyukuk  is  not  a  good  salmon  river,  nor  is  the  country  a 
good  game  or  fur  country,  and  its  natives  are  sometimes 
hard  pressed  for  a  living.    They  know  the  Pelican  and 
hail  us  as  we  pass,  and  we  stop  and  shake  hands  and  greet 
them  and  have  a  little  conversation  and  a  short  service 
pleased  with  their  warm  welcome.     Perhaps  there  is  a' 
new  baby  and  then  the  vestments  are  got  out  and  there 
IS  an  al-fresco  christening  with  a  few  words  about  the 


I 

! 

m 

I* 


h 


m 


;l 


326 


A  SHORT  CUT 


nurture  of  the  child;  perhaps  some  one  is  sick,  and  if  it 
be  a  simple  ailment  a  remedy  is  administered  and  some 
advice  given.  The  tents  and  the  racks  of  red  salmon 
Eive  brightness  and  variety  to  the  bank. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  Kornuchaket,  the  mouth  of 
the    Kornutna,    miswritten   on   the   maps   "Kornuti, 
known  amongst  the  whites  as  Old  Man  Creek,  tributary 
from  the  east.    The  Kornutna  draws  its  headwaters  from 
a  high  basin  where  the  Dall,  certain  branches  of  the 
Melozitna  and  of  the  South  Fork  of  the  Koyukuk  all 
have  their  rise,  and  it  has  long  afforded  a  means  of  reach- 
ing the  upper,  without  traversing  the  lower,  Koyukuk. 
By  the  course  the  Pelican  has  followed  from  the  town 
of  Tanana  to  this  point  a  distance  of  nearly  s«  hundred 
aad  fifty  miles  has  been  travelled;  by  the  wmter  tra.l 
across  country  it  is  no  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 

miles.  .      , .  .  „» 

It  was  at  this  point,  and  virtually  by  this  route,  that 
Lieutenant  Allen  reached  the  river  on  his  pioneer  ex- 
ploration.   Leaving  the  Yukon  a  few  miles  below  Tanana, 
with  one  soldier  and  a  party  of  guides  and  packers,  he 
pursued  the  ridge  between  the  Tozitna  and  Meloz.tna 
Rivers,  crossing  tributaries  of  the  one  and  the  other  until 
the  height  of  land  between  Yukon  and  Koyukuk  waters 
vas  reached;  then  over  flats  and  swamps  and  around 
lakes  (fifty-five  lakes  were  counted  from  one  vantage- 
ground)  he  passed  to  a  tributary  of  the  Kornutna  and 
so  to  that  stream  and  the  upper  KoyukuK,  making 
the  journey   from   Tanana  to    Kornuchaket  with    re- 
markable  expedition  in  six  and  a  half  days.    It  takes 


,.H  . 


U 


METHODS  OF  CARTOGRAPHY 


327 


four  and  a  half  days  over  the  winter  mail  trail  with  a 
dog  team. 

Taking  canoes,  Allen  went  up  the  Koyukuk  as  far  as 
the  present  town  of  Bettles  and  thence  descended  the 
river  to  its  mouth,  mapping  its  course  and  naming  a 
number  of  islands,  of  which  Huggins  Island,  by  some 
strange  chance,  has  found  its  way  to  modem  maps,  while 
almost  all  the  other  names  are  forgotten. 

Honouring  friends  by  naming  islands  on  the  lower 
Koyukuk  after  them  reminds  one  a  little  of  the  "Bel- 
gica"  people,  who,  in  default  of  land,  are  said  to  have 
named  icebergs  after  the  contributors  to  their  singular 
Antarctic  expedition  of  twenty  years  ago,*  on  which  ex- 
pedition, as  one  gathers  from  Jean  Charcot,  the  notori- 
ous pseudodiscoverer  of  the  north  pole.  Doctor  Cook, 
first  began  "to  stray  outside  the  bounds  of  honest  ob- 
servation." 

A  map-engraver  loves  symmetry;  if  it  be  wilderness 
that  he  is  mapping  he  is  willing  to  leave  open  spaces 
provided  they  be  distributed  with  reasonable  regular- 
ity. Here,  he  will  say,  is  too  large  an  emptiness  which 
a  little  script  would  relieve;  so  a  name  of  some  sort 
is  hunted  for  in  the  field-notes  or  on  the  sketch,  and 
Huggins  goes  down  to  posterity  while  Waite  and  Treat 
and  Howard  and  Stout  are  forgotten.  The  irony  of  it 
is  that  Huggins  is  precisely  the  one  of  the  whole  group 
who  needs  no  such  "frail  memorial."  Brigadier-general 
in  the  United  States  army,  thrice  wounded  at  Chicka- 

*"The  Voyage  of  thtfFky  NotT  in  the  Antarctic,"  p.  109.  Hodder  and 
Stoughton. 


) 


m 


¥ 

i 

!'J 
hi 


II  ' 


11  i 


m 


<i 


3,8  RELICS  OF  THE  STAMPEDE 

mauga,  awarded  the  congressional  medal  f°r  8='"''";^' 
in  the  war  against  the  Sioux,  nor  without  claini  to  the 
laurels  of  Apollo  as  well  as  of  Mars  (I  gather  .t  from  my 
"Who's  Who"),  he  still  lives  full  of  years  and  honours. 
But  for  aught  I  know  General  Huggins  may  value  h.s 
island  in  the  Koyukuk  as  highly  as  any  of  h.s  d'^tmct.ons 
as  a  memento  of  General  Allen's  early  fr.endsh.p-for 
our  exploring  lieutenant  is  now  a  brigadier  also. 

Above  the  Kornuchaket  begins  that  region  of  the 
river  which  was  so  plentifully  besprinkled  with  names 
fourteen  or  fifteen  years  after  Allen's  visit,  when  the  gold 
stampede  to  the  Koyukuk  took  place,  names  that  st.l 
emaL  on  most  maps,  though  they  have  been  removed 
from  the  official  maps.    We  pass  one  of  these  on  the 
east  bank  within  a  few  miles.    It  was  the  site  of  the  mos 
considerable  native  village  on  the  river  ten  years  ages  and 
a  road-house  and  store  turned  it  from  "Moses  Village 
to  "Arctic  City  "  when  the  mail  traU  from  Xanana  reached 
the  Koyukuk  at  that  point,  but  store  and  road-ho.se 
and  Indians  are  alike  gone  some  twelve  miles  up  and  the 
place  IS  quite  deserted.    We  will  leave  the  stamped 
name3  for  a  while,  noting  only  Bergm.  n,  two  or  three 
miles  farther  up.  on  the  opposite  bank,  where  the  nver 
makes  a  decided  bend  and  where  the  Northern  Com- 
mercial Company  ha^  a  store  and  dwellings,  no  vestige 
of  which  I  could  any  longer  see  when  last  I  went  up  he 
river      Bergman,  named  for  a  steamboat  captain,  lay 
just  on  the  Arctic  circle,  but  the  "^er  turns  to  the  east 
again  and  winds  about  for  ten  miles  with  very  httle  north- 
ing, so  that  at  the  AUakaket,  which  we  now  approach, 


AN  IDEAL  SCENE 


329 


we  are  only  two  or  three  miles  within  the  technical 
Arctic  regions. 

The  Allakaket  is,  of  course,  the  mouth  of  the  Alatna, 
which  comes  in  from  the  west  and  affords  the  readiest 
and  most-used  avenue  of  travel  to  the  Kobuk  River 
and  Kotzebue  Sound.  Two  miles  below  its  mouth  is  a 
little  village  of  Eskimos,  or  "Malemutes"  as  the  Indians 
call  them,  from  the  Kobuk,  with  the  "Malemute  Riffle," 
another  well-known  difficulty  of  steamboat  navigation, 
lying  in  front  of  it.  The  range  of  hills  which  the  river 
left  when  it  veered  to  the  east  at  Bergman  it  here  returns 
to,  and  right  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Alatna  is  the 
mission  of  St.-John-in-the-Wilderness,  with  the  prin- 
cipal native  village  of  the  Koyukuk  now  clustering  around 
it.  The  log  buildings  of  the  mission,  the  church  with  its 
gilded  cross,  the  schoolhouse,  the  dwelling,  make  a 
modest  and  pretty  group,  as  though  growing  out  of  the 
spruce  forest  by  which  it  is  still  surrounded.  The  native 
cabins  have  an  unusually  substantial  appeurance,  the 
gardens  and,  at  the  mission  dwelling,  even  a  greenhouse 
for  the  early  propagation  of  vegetables  give  evidence  of 
care  and  progress,  and  the  whole  scene  forms  a  pleasant 
and  grateful  contrast  to  the  rugged  wilderness  that  has 
so  long  filled  our  vision. 

The  Pelican  comes  round  the  bend,  all  flags  flying, 
and  the  siren,  like  Mulvaney's  elephant,  "thrumpetin' 
vainglorious"  at  the  completion  of  her  journey,  for  this 
is  as  far  up  the  Koyukuk  as  the  launch  has  ever  gone. 

The  records  of  this  mission,  now  in  the  tenth  year  of 
its  activity,  give  sufficient  evidence  of  what  may  be  done 


!'/    ii'i 

M 

'If 


•h' 


1 1  . 


330  INDIANS  UNWARLIKE 

with  the  Alaskan  Indians  under  circumstances  of  favour- 
able moral  environment.  I  say  moral  environment  be- 
cause there  is  nothing  very  favourable  to  Indian  life 
about  the  physical  environment.  The  Koyukuk  is  not 
a  good  Indian  river.  As  far  back  as  Allen's  day  it  is 
noted  as  a  poor  country,  affording  a  very  scant  subsist- 
ence. Says  he  of  the  Koyukuk  natives,  with  reference 
to  the  warlike  reputation  that  had  attached  to  them  ever 
since  the  Nulato  massacre:  "Those  living  on  the  upper 
part  of  the  river  are  too  poverty-stricken  and  miserable 
to  attempt  anything  that  would  not  assist  them  in  ob- 
taining food  or  clothing."  And  again:  "The  existence 
of  a  people  living  under  such  adverse  circumstances  can- 
not be  of  long  duration." 

I  may  be  allowed  to  say  in  passing  that  not  only  is 
Allen's  journey  memorable  for  its  boldness  and  success, 
for  the  extent  of  new  country  that  it  made  known,  but 
that  the  narrative  of  it  is  pleasant  reading  for  the 
humanity  which  he  displays  towards  the  native  peoples 
he  met.  The  accounts  of  the  early  military  explorations, 
gathered  into  one  volume  and  issued  by  Congress  in 
1900,*  are  all  of  interest  to  those  who  know  the  country 
they  describe,  but  in  reading  some  of  them  one  grows  a 
little  contemptuous  of  strategic  recommendations  touch- 
ing "possible  operations"  against  handfuls  of  ragged 
Indians;  Indians  upon  whose  kindliness  and  compassion 
more  than  one  of  these  sons  of  Mars  came  to  depend  in 
the  face  of  starvation  before  he  was  done  with  his  jour- 
ney.   Although  Allen  also  was  despatched  upon  a  "mili- 

•CompiUtion  of  Nirratives  of  Exploration  in  Alaska,  J900. 


RELIEF  WORK  33, 

tar>-  reconnoissance."  he  does  not  burden  his  page,  with 
plans  of  campaign  against  fish  camps,  but  grasps  at  once 
the  fact  that  from  any  military  point  of  view  the  natives 
of  interior  Alaslca  were  utterly  negligible.  Allen  has  his 
errors  just  as  Dall  has.  but  of  all  the  military  explorers 
he  alone  is  not  unworthy  of  mention  with  Dall. 

The  Koyukuk  is  not  a  good  Indian  country.    Game 
animals  and  fur-bearing  an:mals  are  alike  scarce    and 
compared  with  the  Yukon,  fish  is  not  plentiful;  while 
the  freight  rates  to  its  upper  waters  are  so  high  that 
wh«e  man's  grub"  is  much  more  expensive  than  on 
the  Yukon.    So  the  native  people  must  always  work 
hard  to  secure  a  scanty  living.     Fish  is  the  main  de- 
pendence, and  in   1909  when  a  partial  failure  of  the 
previous  summer's  fishing  was  followed  by  one  of  the 
periodic  disappearances  of  rabbits,  the  situation  passed 
the  handling  of  the  recently  established  mission  and  an 
appeal  had  to  be  made  to  the  government  to  come  to 
the  rescue  with  relief  work-the  one  instance  in  which 
this  has  been  necessary  within  my  knowledge  of  interior 
Alaska,  and  I  think  within  its  history.    J  take  pleasure 
m  recording  that  so  soon  as  the  pressing  need  became 
known  the  aid  was  promptly  forthcoming  through  the 
channel  of  the  Bureau  of  Education.    The  amount  actu- 
ally expended  did  not.  I  think,  exceed  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, but  it  averted  acute  distress  and  even  saved  lives  at 
a  pinch  when  the  mission  was  stripped  to  the  bone  and 
could  procure  no  further  supplies. 

The  occupation  of  the  river  two  hundred  miles  farther 
up  by  the  white  men  of  the  mining-camp  afl'ords  some 


'ill 


I  '  i.    . 


•If 


li 


\. 


331  RIVAL  THERMOMETERS 

opportunity  to  the  native,  of  earning  a  little  money  by 
freighting  with  their  dogs,  cutting  wood  for  steamboats, 
snowshoe-making.  and  similar  services;  lu.t  the  wandermg 
and  more  enterprising  Kobuk  Eskimos  secure  the  most 
of  this  work,  and  it  remains  a  hard  country  for    nd.ans 
to  make  a  living  in.    It  is,  of  course,  easy  to  talk  of  re- 
moving them  bodily  to  some  better  district,  but  the 
difficulties  are  great  if  not  insuperable,  nor  does  one  re- 
gard with  complacency  the  complete  depopulation  of  so 
large  an  area,  sparsely  peopled  as  it  is  to-day;  rather  the 
efforts  of  the  mission  are  in  the  direction  of  urgmg  and 
aiding  the  natives  to  make  the  most  of  its  meagre  re- 
sources. 

Here  I  would  like  to  introduce  an  excursus  on  rab- 
bits, for  the  world  at  large  does  not  realise  what  Alaska 
owes  to  this  prolific  rodent.    Just  as  the  American  buffalo 
is,  or  was,  a  bison,  so  I  know  that  the  snowshoe  rabbit 
is  a  hare;  but  it  never  troubles  me  when  the  vast  and 
blessed  inertia  of  common  usage  disdains  the  petty  efforts 
of  scientific   accuracy.    I   have  watched   with   amuse- 
ment for  many  years,  for  instance,  the  indignant  denun- 
ciations of  the  Fahrenheit  thermometer  by  the  Centi- 
grade; and  there  is  little  or  nothing  that  the  Fahrenheit 
can  say  in  reply;  yet  if  I  were  looking  for  a  "safe  bet 
I  would  wager  that  for  generations  to  come  water  will 
freeze  at  32  degrees  and  boil  at  212.     After  all  what 
more  is  there  in  names  of  animals  or  standards  of  mea- 
surement than  convenience?-and  if  the  common  world 
find  it  more  convenient  to  adhere  to  an  old  standard 


IMPORTANCE  OF  RABBIT 


3J1 
which  it  comprehend,  rather  than  adopt  a  new  one 
which  .t  doe,  not-that  i,  the  common  world',  priviJege 
The  measurement  of  heat,  if  it  did  not  fir,t  become  po,,i: 
•be  at  fir.t  became  general  by  Fahrenheit",  in.tru- 
mcnt,  ,t  ,erve,  .t,  purpo,e  as  well  tcvH,v  a,  it  did 
then;  ,ts  reading,  are  in,tantly  compr  ■!  .n.lcd  ber.„„e 
they  refer  to  a  standard  generally  f,  ,.  I,  „  „  .|  ., 
common  world  is  not  troubled  abo,.,  .  |,nt  I  i,avc  s<r 
described  a,  "the  reproach,  even  the  ,  '..mu  -  „f  ■  .,•  „ 
pornt." 

But  my  excursu,  on  rabbits  m.sr  ,,.„  i>ccome  an 
excursus  on  thermometers,  so  let  u,  retum  ,o  o„r 
rodents.  ' 

In  setting  down  the  chief  «,urc«  of  the  subsistence 
wh,ch  mtenor  Alaska  affords,  next  in  importance  to  the 
salmon  must  come  the  rabbit.    At  times  and  in  places 

„H  Tu  I      ""''°"'  '°  "'^  "°'*  '""8  of  the  black 

ad  the  brown  bear  or  the  mountain-sheep.  are  plentiful; 
at  times  and  m  places  enormous  quantities  of  such  meat 
are  secured  and  consumed.  But  at  other  times  and 
places  no  b.g  game  will  be  found  at  all.  And  it  is  often 
just  when  a  man  is  dependent  on  the  country  that  the 
big  game  fails  him.  Sir  John  Franklin's  men  starved  to 
death  in  a  region  that  teems  with  musk-ox  and  caribou 

tinn'T  Vr'  °^  '""'"  y"^^-  ^"»'  ^'^h  an  excep- 
lon  which  will  be  noted  presently  the  rabbit  never  faij 
and  IS  found  of  one  species  or  another  throughout  the 
whole  counto^  even  to  the  shores  of  the  northern  ocean. 
Moose  and  canbou  hunting,  not  to  mention  bear  hunt- 
ing, require  strength  and  skill,  but  even  a  child  can  pro- 


i* 


m 

iii 


'I  ^' 


334  PORCUPINE  AS  FOOD  SUPPLY 

cure  a  rabbit-small  Indian  boys  kill  --^crs  °f  t^';^^ 
with  arrows-and  the  phrase  used  amongst  he  Indians 
To  describe  the  last  extremity  of  female  decrepitude  means 
"too  old  to  snare  rabbits. 

"hVrabbit  has  been  just  as  valuable  to  the  white 
„.an  as  to  the  native.    I  think  there  njight  have  b  en 
actual  starvation  in  the  first  winter  of  the  Fairbanks 
Zl  and  again  in  the  first  winter  of  ^^.e  Iditar^  cam 
but  for  the  rabbits;  and  many  a  prospector  has  eked 
o^  an  "outfit"  W  h  rabbits  that  would  not  have  sufficed 
"r  h^  living  without  them.    I  know  of  a  Swede  who 
ted  for  a  Jhole  winter  on  straight  rabbit  while  pros- 
oectine  a  claim  in  the  Koyukuk  camp. 
'Sough  this  digression  is  confined  to  rabbits,  I  may 
add  that  there  is  another  common  rodent,  more  succulent 
han  the  rabbit,  that  has  saved  many  a  m.n  from  stan^a- 
tion  in  the  northern  wilderness-the  porcupine.    He 
ITn  more  easily  caught,  for.  secure  in  his  de  ens.ve  a. 
mament.  he  makes  no  attempt  to  flee  and  a  stout  stick 
TkiU  him;  but  though  common  he  cannot  compare  m 
ribs  wi;h  the   rabbit.     The  rabbit's   numbers  are 
indtd  at  times  prodigious.    Sometimes  the  sloughs 
he  Yukon  are  crisscrossed  for  miles  together  with  the.r 
racks   and  the  dense  willow  shoots  along  the  same  d  - 
Tee 'completely  denuded  of  bark  as  high  as^ a  rabbit 
teeth  can  reach  when  he  is  standing  on  his  hind  legs    a 
eeular  and  evenly  marked  a  belt  as  an  inundation  leaves 
?hind  ^  and  mich  more  striking.    The  raM,its  increa. 
and  multiply  all  over  the  land  for  a  period  of  years 
commonly!  I  believe,  seven,  and  then,  almost  at  a  stroke, 


PERIODICITY  OF  RABBITS  335 

they  are  gone.  Whether  it  be  that  their  numbers  be- 
come at  last  too  great  for  the  amount  of  food  which  the 
country  provides  them  or  that  ttiey  upset  some  other 
careful  balance  of  nature  I  know  not,  but  a  rapidly  fatal, 
contagious  disease  appears  amongst  them  and  they 
simply  disappear.  The  year  when  this  is  written  (1917) 
there  are  no  rabbits  in  the  country.  In  almost  con- 
tinual travel  during  the  first  three  months  of  the  year 
not  more  than  ten  or  a  dozen  were  seen.  By  and  by  they 
will  begin  to  return;  they  will  not  be  plentiful  next  winter 
probably,  but  by  the  next  they  will  be  numerous  enough, 
and  the  cycle  will  repeat  itself. 

Beside  his  direct  food  value  and  the  value  of  his  skin 
(which,  especially  when  quilted  between  blankets,  makes 
very  warm  bedding),  the  rabbit  has  other  importance. 
For  our  poor  bunny  is  the  chief  dependence  of  all  the 
predatory  animals  and  birds  in  the  country.  Hand  in 
hand  with  the  increase  in  the  rabbits  goes  usually  the 
increase  in  the  lynxes.  This  past  winter  the  lynxes  have 
been  devouring  one  another;  the  skins  brought  to  the 
traders  are  all  of  full-grown  large  animals;  the  kittens 
and  undersized  animals  have  all  been  eaten;  and  many  a 
man  going  to  his  traps  has  found  but  the  leg  of  a  lynx 
—a  free  animal  having  devoured  a  captive.  So  next 
winter  there  will  be  very  few  lynxes.  The  fox,  the 
marten,  the  ermine,  the  wolverine— all  these  fur-bearing 
animals  are  dependent  chiefly  upon  rabbits,  and  furs 
are  our  only  export  besides  gold.  How  hard  pushed  the 
foxes  were  this  winter  was  evident  from  the  many  places 
on  the  trails  where  they  had  been  at  great  pains  to  dig 


I' 
I     ' 
'     I 

ill 


^1} 


ii 


f  '1 


I 


336  RABBITS  PREY  OK  OWLS 

out  field-mice  from  their  little  burrows  in  the  fro-n  earth 

_I  think  foxes  do  not  usually  trouble  w.th  such    small 

''"The  rabbit  is  also  the  chief  dependence  of  the  preda- 
tory birds.  It  does  not  take  an  eagle  or  even  a  hawk 
to  kill  a  rabbit.  Poor  bunny  is  the  most  defenceless 
creature  in  the  world,  and  anything  that  has  wmgs  to 
pouL  on  him  with  and  claws  and  beak  to  tear  h.m  wuh. 
makes  a  meal  off  him. 

"^disturbed  an  impudent  little  screech^wl  thaU  am 
sure  was  not  six  inches  high,  a  ver.table  Tom  Thumb  of 
an  owl,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  meal  last  wmter,  and 
h^  rl  with  angry  snappings  of  his  beak  to  a  near-by 
tree  and  sat  till  my  departure  permitted  the  resumpt.on 
"hi.  repast.  And  the  scene  held  such  an  mterestmg 
snol-print  of  just  what  had  occurred  that  I  detamed  h.m 
f^m  his  dinnJr  to  trace  it  out.  The  rabb  t  was  runnmg 
.,,n  nlace  when  the  bird  struck.     He  struck, 

:^rh"thTa:^Ihtd^upposed,butwiththe^s^^^^^^ 

ofthe  wing,  and  there  on  the  snow  was  the  dehcate  >m- 
preso  of  every  feather  of  that  outspread  wmg.    Th 
Sbit  was  knocked  over,  but  the  bird  must  have  fa,   d 
to  seize  him;  here  were  further  leaps  acrc«s  the  -ow;  th 
..ush  where  he  would  be  safe  was  only  a  few  ,um 
ahead;  but  the  bird  was   at   h.m   agan.  with   another 
troke    leaving  another  beautiful  mtaglio  of  a  wmg  o„ 
he  snow,  and  this  time  the  beak  and  claws  .nust  have 
secured  a  hoW,  for  there  was  blood.     For  two  or  three 
fl  there  were   all  the  marks  of  a  rough-and-tumble 
Sug^,  and  r.ght  on  the  edge  of  the  brush  lay  the 


CAT  AND  OWL   FIGHT 


Zi7 


torn  carcass,  from  which  the  owl  had  sullenly  arisen  ?s  we 
approached. 

Let  me,  in  concluding  this  digression,  tell  of  a  similar 
incident  in  which  the  tables  were  completely  turned  upon 
a  much  larger  and  more  powerful  bird-the  great  horned 
owl,  common  in  Alaska,  and,  I  think,  everywhere  else 
Seeing  what  he  thought  a  rabbit  at  the  foct  of  a  tree 
hard  by  a  cabin  in  the  dusk  of  a  winter  evening,  the 
owl  made  his  customary  noiseless  swoop— and  caught  a 
tartar;  for  it  was  a  full-grown  white  cat  belonging  to  the 
man  who  lived  in  the  cabin.    Aroused  by  the  noise,  the 
man  ran  out,  and  he  said  that  he  never  saw  fur  and 
feathers  fly  so  fast  and  furiously  in  his  life  before.     At 
last  the  cat  managed  to  turn  on  his  back  although  the 
owl's  talons  were  fixed  in  him,  and  with  the  claws  of  his 
hind  legs  ripped  open  the  owl's  belly  and  disembowelled 
h.m,  and  I  saw  the  skin  and  what  was  left  of  the  feathers 
nailed  to  the  cabin  door.    The  cat's  injuries  were  severe, 
but  when  I  saw  Him  he  was  completely  recovered  and 
bore  no  trace  of  the  fight. 

The  observation  of  animals  is  not  infrequently  mis- 
taken. Here  at  the  Allakaket  is  a  Kobuk  boy  with  a  great 
scar  on  his  face  that  he  will  carry  as  long  as  he  lives. 
It  was  made  by  a  wolf  when  he  was  a  little  child,  the 
only  instance  I  recall  hearing  of  in  Alaska  of  a  'woif 
attacking  a  human  being,  and  the  boy's  parents  were 
lonvinced  that  the  wolf  seized  the  child  by  mistake. 
He  was  playing  near  their  hut  clad  in  a  long  pnrkec  made 
"f  mountain-sheep  skin  with  hood  and  mittens  „f  the 
same  material  complete,  and  they  believe  the  wolf  mis- 


iii'i: 


w^u 


338  ALLAKAKET  MISSION 

took  the  child  for  a  lamb.  A  wonderful  sure  shot  killed 
the  wolf  without  injuring  the  child-a  piece  of  marks- 
manship almost  equal  to  William  Tell's. 

The  danger  with  an  admittedly  discursive  book  .s 
that  there  is  like  to  be  no  due  control  of  its  divagation. 
Here  have  I  wandered  from  rabbits  to  owls  and  from  owU 
to  wolves  and  had  almost  gone  off  into  rnarksmanship^ 
The  rabbits  led  me  further  than  I  intended,  but     should 
like  to  feel  that  I  have  contributed  '"-f^  a  b  tter 
understanding   than    ha.   hitherto    prevaded      outs  d 
of  the  part  they  play  in  Alask.m  economy.     If  their 
per  odic   year  ./  general   mortality   had   not   coincided 
w  L  an  unusual  scarcity  of  fish,  it  had  not  been  neces- 
sary to  ask  help  in  feeding  Indians  of  the  interior  of 
Al^ka  on  the  only  occasion,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge, 
when  it  has  ever  been  asked. 

The  wolf  did,  at  any  rate,  bring  me  back  to  the  Al- 
lakaket,  where  the  mission  nurse  and  the  teacher  tw'. 
lone  white  women  in  the  Arctic  wildemess-and  all  the 
nadve  population,  are  crowded  on  the  bank  to  welcome 

the  Pelican.  .  .  ,        ■ 

It  is  always  a  great  pleasure  to  visit  this  place  be 
cause  its  happy  isolation  from  the  usual  mal^n  inflaence. 
that  hinder  work  amongst  the  Indians  allows  of  en- 
tinuous  improvement.  The  people  were  dying  off  b  - 
L  the  mission  came,  now  they  are  steadily  increases. 
That  is  positively  the  first  thing  to  secure,  for  what  m- 
spiration  is  there  in  working  U.  a  d.x,med  c  ,.nmun,t>^ 
The  children  are  far  and  away  the  most  important  p  > 
,le  in   any   community,   but   in   an   Indian   commun.n 


1' : 


'Ih 


I ' 


1 1 

1  ! 


UiW^ 


I  ! 


I 


UNIQUE  MISSION  WORK  339 

they  are  everything,  and  work  for  their  parents  is  chiefly 
necessary  because  of  the  parents'  influence  upon  the 
children.  At  one  of  our  mission  stations  where  the 
people  are  not  increasing  the  man  in  charge  boasted  to 
me  that  there  was  not  an  illegitimate  child  or  a  half- 
breed  child  in  the  village.  "But  there  are  no  children 
at  all!"  I  cried.  And  I  am  afraid  I  shocked  the  good 
man,  as  I  may  shock  some  of  my  readers,  by  saying  that 
I  much  preferred  half-breed  children  or  even  illegitimate 
children  to  no  children  at  all.  By  the  grace  of  God 
much  may  be  done  with  half-breed  children  and  even 
with  illegitimate  children,  but  what,  in  the  name  of  all 
that  is  hopeless  and  preposterous,  can  be  done  with 
no  children  at  all  ? 

So  it  delights  me  to  see  the  Allakaket  mission  swarm- 
ing with  healthy  children,  and  to  know  that  the  death- 
rate  is  much  below  the  birth-rate  year  after  year;  to  go 
into  the  schoolroom  and  see  the  docile  eagerness  of  many 
of  them,  the  wide-eyed  wonder  of  the  beginnings  of  an 
acquaintance  with  the  great  world;  to  gather  the  folk 
in  the  church,  Kobuks  on  one  side,  Koyukuks  on  the 
other,  and  laboriously  by  the  mouths  of  two  interpreters 
endeavour  the  beginnings  of  their  acquaintance  with  the 
Oreaier  World.  For  this  is  the  one  mission  that  I 
knov/  of  anywhere  that  ser\'es  two  totally  different 
races,  speaking  totally  different  languages,  Indians  and 
Eskimos. 

A  high  bluff  bank  of  clay,  seamed  with  gullies  and 
continually  weathering  in  landslides,  rises  just  behind  the 
Eskimo  village  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  about  a 


'I  t 

*    I: 


.■m-'wt. 


340  INTERRACIAL  EXCHANGE  PLACE 

„.ilc  belov.  the  mission  and  is  crowned  with  the  crosses 
and    fluttering    streamers    of    Esk.mo    B-« .    .^  - 
notes  that   it  bears   an  Indian   --^.^-  "^'^^    ^^ 
wonders  that  so  comparatively  ms.gnificant  a  feature 
lu      receive  a  distinctive  name  while  high  mountam 
oeaks  have  no  des .  .tion.     The  reason  is  that  the 
ig  plateau  abo  .  this  bank  was  of  old  the  meeung- 
pl  ce  of  Eskimos     nd  Indians  for  tradmg^    Notw.th- 
standing  the  traditional  hostility  between  the  races  the 
xgencfes  of  native  commerce  demanded  some  mter- 
S  of  commodities,  and  this  high  open  land  was 
hZ  as  a  rendezvous  because  it  afforded  no  co^er  for 
ambuscade.     Avoiding  the  lower  Matna  the   Kobuks 
Tossed  the  ridges  to  this  plateau  and  announced  the.r 
a" "al  by  signal-fires.     To  them  the  Indians  repa.red, 
Zbtg  the  bluff  by  the  steep  gullies,  and  the  vantage 
J  po"L  compensated  the  Eskimos  for  the  d.s.dvan- 
;^of  their  presence  in  enemy  country.    Mutua^  ^^ 
pidon  and  fear  are  bred  of  mutual  .gnoranre;  of  lat 
ye  rs  the  two  races  dwell  harmoniously  side  by  s.de  and 
IZl   is   even   some   tendency   towards   mtermarr.age. 
which  we  do  not  think  it  wise  to  encourage^ 

Yet  how  real  the  old  fear  was,  received  .Uustrat  on 
.wo  or  three  years  ago  when  an  Indian  ^^  y  f rom   ^ 
Allakaket,  absent  in  hunting-camp,  hearmg  some  foohsh 
AuaKan.    ,  ^         Malemutes  are  coming, 

Z  ""Yut  ant  stayed  on  the  Yukon  for  a 
tuple  of  years,  le..ing  their  cabin  and  all  its  contents 

. Nis^Hl^^U  i.  the  actu.l  nam.,  and  i.  mean,  "the  place  where  .h. 
scone*  tfA\  down." 


INDIAN  GAMES  ,^, 

unvisited  behind.    And  I  have  seen  the  village  of  Nulato 
on  the  Yukon  deserted  on  a  similar  rumour. 

If  we  are  at  the  mission  for  the  Fourth  of  July    as 
some  years  we  try  to  be,  there  will  be  sports  and  conte'sts. 
The  boys  and  girls  and  the  women  will  run  races;  there 
will  be  wrestling-bouts  for  the  men;  that  the  elders  be 
not  left  out,  there  will  be  leaping  upon  a  tightly  stretched 
moose  hide  held  by  a  dozen  men  for  the  old  women 
which  they  have  b    rowed  from  the  Eskimos  as  their  spe- 
cial diversion,  with  a  prize  for  the  one  who  leaps  highest 
-and  the  agility  of  these  ancient  dames  is  sometimes 
astonishing;  while  for  the  old  men  there  will  be  a  con- 
test in  making  fire  with  wooden  drills,  an  art  neglected 
since  the  introduction  of  matches.    The  last  time  I  saw 
the  fire-making  the  victor  caught  his  smouldering  saw- 
dust in  the  shavings  he  had  ready  and  blew  it  to  a  blaze 
in  two  minutes  and  four  seconds  from  the  time  the  word 
was  given  to  start  twirling  the  drills. 

Allakaket  is  almost  universally  corrupted  to  Allen- 
kaket  by  the  white  men  of  the  Koyukuk,  and  there  is  a 
notion  amongst  those  of  them  who  know  something  of 
the  history  of  the  region  that  the  place  was  named  by 
Lieutenant  Allen  in  honour  of  himself-bascd  perhaps 
on  the  circumstance  that  he  calls  the  Alatna  the  "Allen- 
kaket  River."  This  notion  is,  of  course,  ridiculous;  but 
one  is  curious  to  know  whence  he  obtained  the  name. 
Ail  Allen's  rivers  are  "kakets";  he  did  not  discover  that 
Ij kaket"  means  "mouth,"  but  I  am  sure  he  never  got 
"Allenkaket"  from  any  native  lips,  and  can  only  con- 
jecture that  he  heard  the  white  traders  on  the  Yukon 


;iF 


Si- 


3^  PHONETIC  CHANGES 

speak  of  this  tributary  of  the  Koyukuk    and  retained 
Tmen  will  often  retain,  an  original  n..spronunc.at.on 
despite  the  subsequent  hearing  of  a  correct  one  many 
time      One  judges  that  the  "n"  first  dropped  .nto  the 
Tme  simply^ecause  it  is  easier  of  ""-«  to  a  wj 
^an  with  the  nasal  consonant  than  w.thout  .    as    Samt 
Leger"  came  to  be   pronounced   '■S.llenger    _or      S d 
lenger."     John  Evelyn  in  his  d.ary  wr.t  s      my  lady 
Selleneer"  just  as.  I  fancy,  Allen  wrote  "Allenkaket. 
tmThe  Ire  confirmed  =n  this  -jecture  because 
"chaket"  is  really  the  KoyukuK  usage;  whereas    kaket 
p  evai     «;  the  middle  Yukon  whence  Allen  started  for 
trKorkuk.     "Allakaket"  established  itself  on  our 
the   KoyuKUK  sufficiently  aware 

mission  stationery  before  1  was  mys-c  „_,,i.,d 

of  the  local  usage.    Dall  alone,  as  I  th.nk  I  remarked 
before,  had  both  eyes  and  ears. 

It  is  at  the  Allakaket  that  the  mountains  of  the  En 
dicott  Range,  which  separates  Koyukuk  water  from  the 
w  t  of  the  northern  slope,  first  begin  to  appear  m  the 
Ts tanc  Lookine  "P  ''^^  ^latna,  some  southwestern 
turs  of  the  range  lift  their  heads,  snow-covered  save 
Eg  the  heat  of  summer,  and  the  most  P— ^P^f 
from  this  vantage  has  received  the  name  of  the  Young 

' torr^iltr  so  of  serpentine  river  in  a  wide  valley, 
the  bant  generally  low  though  there  are  t^J«;~; 
ally  where  ridges  bound  the  stream,  brmgs  us  to  he 
mouth  of  the  South  Fork,  tributary  from  the  east,  h 
Ta  gt  affluent  which  the  Koyukuk  receives  on  .ts  le^" 
bank,  and  here  is  another  native  village  of  e.ght  or  ten 


Miaocorr  iisowtion  ibt  cH«n 

(»HSI  and  rSO  TEST  CHAKT  No.  2] 


1.0 

■  w 

^^= 

•»U£ 

12.2 

H-i^ 

I.I 

e-^   1 

y£ 

^     APPLIED  ItvMGE 


m 


It! 


H 


w 


SOME  INDIAN  STATISTICS  343 

cabins,  the  second  and  last  Indian  settlement  now  ex- 
isting on  the  Koyukuk.  It  has  at  least  one  distinction; 
the  snowshoes  made  by  the  people  now  are  considered 
the  best  in  Alaska.  This  place  we  count  a  dependency 
of  the  mission  at  the  Allakaket,  so  far  as  the  schooling  of 
the  children  and  the  instruction  and  care  of  the  people 
are  concerned,  for  they  come  down  usually  for  a  month 
at  Christmas  and  for  the  fishing  in  the  summer.  Allen 
found  thirteen  souls  in  this  neighbourhood.  There  are  now 
upwards  of  forty,  some  of  the  increase  a  natural  increase 
of  late  years,  though  there  has  been  emigration  from 
other  parts  of  the  river.  Allen  counted  two  hundred  and 
seventy-six  souls  as  the  total  population  of  the  Koyukuk, 
ranging  from  this  point  to  the  mouth,  and  is  confident 
that  his  enumeration  is  much  more  correct  than  most 
Indian  censuses.  Of  these  he  found  the  greater  part  on 
the  lower  river,  now  entirely  deserted  save  for  early  sum- 
mer fowling  and  fishing,  as  we  have  seen.  Most  of  these 
lower  Koyukuk  people  must  have  withdrawn  to  form  the 
village  on  the  Yukon  just  below  the  Koyukuk  mouth, 
where  they  preserve  the  somewhat  sinister  reputation  they 
gained  long  ago,  for  neither  Allen  nor  Stoney  mention 
any  village  there  in  1885.  Since  we  count  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  Indians  all  told,  as  attached  to  St.  John's- 
in-the-Wilderness,  including  the  Hogatzakaket  folk,  and 
there  must  be  about  one  hundred  at  the  Koyukuk  mouth 
when  they  are  all  at  home,  it  is  probable  that  there  has 
not  been  greater  diminution  than  these  figures  would  in- 
dicate in  the  total  number  of  Koyukukans  in  the  past 
thirty  years,  while  on  the  upper  river  in  the  last  ten 


ii  I' !  1 


I 


344  TYPICAL   STAMPEDE 

years  there  has  been  a  steady  increase.  It  may  be  noted 
in  passing  that  it  is,  of  course,  easy  to  count  exactly 
the  number  of  Indians  present  at  a  village  on  any  day 
one  may  visit  it,  but  that  to  give  the  exact  number  who 
belong  to  a  given  place  is  not  always  easy  amongst 
a  wandering  people.  Sometimes  a  whole  family  will 
migrate  to  the  Yukon  at  Xanana,  remain  there  for  two 
or  three  years  and  then  return— or  they  may  not  return 

at  all. 

Because  the  author  finds  his  Indians  of  inexhaustible 
interest  it  does  not  follow  that  the  reader  will;  there 
may  be  those  who  will  be  glad  to  learn  that  we  are  done 
with  Indians  for  the  remainder  of  the  Koyukuk  River. 

For  here  at  the  South  Fork  we  begin  to  approach  the 
domain  of  the  miner,  which  is  the  domain  of  the  white 
man.  It  was  to  this  region  of  the  river  that  the  "rush" 
of  1898  reached.  Ocean  vessels  arriving  at  St.  Michael 
full  of  men  on  their  way  to  the  Klondike,  learned  at  the 
same  time  of  the  overcrowded  condition  of  that  camp 
and  of  a  new  "strike"  on  the  Koyukuk;  and  river-craft 
of  all  kinds,  knocked-down  boats  brought  thither  on  the 
ocean-going  vessels,  boats  newly  constructed  at  the  port, 
boats  that  had  braved  the  perils  of  the  ocean  passage  un- 
der their  own  power,  turned  aside  from  the  journey  up  the 
Yukon  and  ascended  the  Koyukuk.  Some  got  no  farther 
than  the  neighbourhood  of  Bergman,  some  went  a  little 
way  up  the  Alatna,  but  most  of  them  reached  the  moath 
of  the  South  Fork,  above  which  the  difficulties  of  '■ 
gation  greatly  increase;  some  went  a  little  way  u^  clie 
South  Fork,  some  a  little  farther  up  the  main  river,  and 


A  DOG-MEAT  FEAST  '345 

at  this  point  or  that,  at  the  limit  of  their  draught  on  the 
falling  waters,  tied  up  and  froze  in  for  the  winter.  It  is 
said  that  upwards  of  fifty  steamboats  all  told  and  nearly 
a  thousand  men  wintered  in  this  region  that  year. 

Where  they  tied  up  mattered  not  at  all;  there  was 
httle  or  no  attempt  at  mining  or  even  prospecting,  and 
next  summer  all  that  extricated  themselves  from  the  ice 
at  the  break-up  went  down  the  river  again.  When  first 
I  knew  the  Koyukuk  several  wrecks  still  remained,  but 
I  think  they  are  all  gone  now.  They  came,  they  win- 
tered, they  went— these  Koyukuk  stampeders.  Some 
of  the  men  from  the  boats  made  their  way  up  to  the 
actual  diggings— and  some  of  them  are  there  yet;  some 
came  out  from  the  diggings  by  various  overland  routes 
to  the  Yukon.  I  remember  a  cabin  on  the  Dall  River, 
the  logs  of  which  bore  written  comments  on  the  country,' 
the  climate,  and  the  trail  that  would  not  stand  tran- 
scription, and  fr  i.  the  dates  appended  I  judged  that 
these  valedictory  compliments  were  made  by  bands  of 
"busted"  stampeders. 

They  straggled  out  by  the  Dall  River  to  Rampart 
on  the  Yukon.  One  party  of  three  or  four  having  con- 
sumed all  their  food,  killed  and  ate  a  dog,  and  they  still 
tell  with  glee  at  Rampart  of  the  hot  dispute  about  pay- 
ment for  the  same.  The  owner  insisted  upon  a  pro  rata 
contribution  from  those  who  had  participated  in  the 
feast,  and  was  scarce  dissuaded  from  hauling  before  the 
magistrate  one  who  insisted  that  he  "wasn't  going  to 
pay  no  ten  dollars  for  a  piece  of  dog  leg,"  which  was  all 
he  got;  "let  them  as  ate  the  white  meat  pay  for  it." 


346 


EPHEMERAL  CITIES 


(i. 


m 


m 


But  there  are  exigencies  of  thr  trail,  especially  with 
"chechakos"  that  it  is  better  to  draw  a  curtain  upon. 

Whenever  a  steamboat  tied  up  a  few  cabins  were 
buUt  on  the  bank  for  the  boat's  company.  One  boat 
that  struggled  up  the  main  river  above  the  mouth  of 
the  South  Fork  happened  to  have  some  sort  of  official 
from  the  General  Land  Office  on  board,  and  he  laid  out 
a  town  site  with  church  and  school  and  court-house, 
with  First  Avenue  and  Second  Avenue  and  so  forth. 
The  town  was  named  Peavey,  and  blue-prints  of  it  were 
made  that  looked  quite  imposing.  One  of  the  boats 
that  went  up  the  South  Fork  had  a  dynamo  on  board, 
and  the  town  built  by  its  company  was  lit  by  electric 
lights  that  winter. 

When  the  Land  Office  man  returned  to  Washington 
he  carried  with  him  the  names  and  locations  of  these 
settlements,  and  this  is  how  the  upper  Koyukuk  River 
came  to  be  dotted  all  over  with  towns  that  still  appear 
on  most  maps,  though  they  had  no  more  than  one 
winter's  existence  and  no  possibility  of  permanence. 
They  have  been  stricken  from  the  late  edition  of  the 
government  maps.  Seaforth,  Union  City,  Jimtown, 
Soo  City,  these  on  the  South  Fork;  Beaver  City  on  the 
Alatna;  Arctic  City  and  Peavey  on  the  main  stream, 
are  all  in  this  class;  and  Bergman  which  had  a  little  longer 
existence  as  a  warehouse  depot.  When  last  I  saw  Peavey 
some  years  ago  the  superincumbent  snow  of  a  winter 
had  crushed  the  two  remaining  cabins  to  the  ground. 

We  now  draw  to  the  end  of  the  navigable  Koyukuk, 
for   Settles,  between   forty  and  fifty  miles   above  the 


iv 


THE  ENDICOTT  MOUNTAINS  347 

South  Fork,  is  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation.    At  a 
low  stage  of  water  the  boats  cannot  reach  Settles  with 
any  load,  and   frequently  it  is  necessary  for  them  to 
double-trip  and  treble-trip,  and  even  on  the  last  jour- 
ney of  the  season,  to  leave  caches  behind  that  cannot  be 
carried  up  at  all.     "Dorothy"  Slough  with  its  whirl- 
pools at  held  and  foot,  the  "Crimmins"  Bar,  the  "Bad- 
ger" Bar  with  its  snags— all  named  for  craft  that  came  to 
grief— are  special  difficulties  of  navigation  in  this  part  of 
the  river.     The  Koyukuk  rises  and  falls  with  much  ra- 
pidity; a  heavy  rain  upon  its  upper  basin  will  give  good 
water  for  two  or  three  days  upon  which  a  boat  may  easily 
reach  its  destination;  but  if  this  be  missed  a  long  wait 
may  be  necessary  ere  another  opportunity  serve,  or  much 
laborious  relaying  and  warping  over  bars  must  be  re- 
sorted  to.     The   steamboats   employed   were   specially 
designed  and  built  for  this  work;  of  very  light  construc- 
tion, drawing  only  a  few  inches  of  water,  they  are  pro- 
vided with  powerful  engines  and  unusually  strong  steam 
capstans  and  winches  and  similar  tackle. 

On  a  clear  bright  day  the  visitor  approaching  Hetties 
will  enjoy  the  sight  of  the  long  range  of  the  Endicott 
Mountains  stretching  like  a  wall  from  east  to  west,  as 
though  to  bar  any  farther  advance.  Their  sharp  rocky 
peaks  carry  snow  well  into  the  summer,  though  no 
point  of  them  passes  the  line  of  perpetual  snow  and 
there  are  therefore  no  glaciers.  They  bear  the  same  gen- 
eral appearance  which  gave  the  name  "Rocky  Mountains" 
to  the  western  sierra  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
visitor  should  remember  that  they  are  in  fact  a  part  of 


!3 


( i 


348 


CALL  OK  THE  MOUNTAIN 


that  same  range;  for  when  that  range  in  .ts  northern 
extension  reaches  about  the  68th  parallel  of  latitude  it 
turns  at  right  angles  to  the  west,  and  stretches  ail  across 
northern  Alaska  as  we  see  it  stretching  here,  forming  the 
watershed  between  the  interior  drainage  to  the  Yukon 
and  the  drainage  direct  into  the  northern  ocean.  It 
gives  one  some  conception  of  the  grand  scale  upon  which 
the  North  American  continent  is  laid  out  to  realise  that 
these  finely  sculptured,  jagged  peaks  are  part  of  the  same 
continuous  mountain  range  as  the  peaks  of  Colorado. 

Did  any  one  who  retains  any  vivacity  of  imagination 
ever  gaze  at  such  a  barrier  range  as  this  without  longing 
to  know  what  is  on  the  other  side  ?— without  being  pos- 
sessed by  at  least  a  momentary  desire  to  cross  it  and 
see  ?  Kipling,  who  has  voiced  so  many  of  the  commonly 
inarticulate  desires  of  the  human  mind  has  put  some 
suggestion  of  this  feeling  once  and  again  into  his  verse, 
and  many  lesser  men,  including  our  own  northern  poet, 
Robert  Service,  have  taken  the  suggestion  for  a  text 
and  have  exceedingly  amplified  it  if  they  have  not  much 
further  elucidated  it. 

The  feeling  is  not  the  same  as  that  aroused  by  some 
great,  isolated,  or  dominating  uplift;  in  that  case  the 
appeal  is,  I  think,  much  less  universal,  and  the  lure 
lingers  upon  the  height  itself  and  urges  to  the  attain- 
ment thereof,  urges  entrance  upon  its  lofty  and  remote 
recesses  hitherto  reserved  from  the  foot  of  man.  But 
the  challenge  of  a  long  level  range  is  precisely  the  chal- 
lenge of  a  wall,  and  I  have  had  the  same  feeling  when 
passing  by  the  high  enclosing  masonry  of  the  garden  of  a 


VIEW  FROM  LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN         34,^ 
Roman  palace.     It  make,  little  matter  what  is  behind; 

klmg  m.  .,Ie  fountams  bedecked  with  classic  statuary  or 
whether  .t  be  merely  the  Arctic  desert.  The  th  ngis  a 
concealment  and  a  barrier  and  that  is  why  it  has  s, 

ta  ns    p„haps  fifty  or  sixty  miles  wide,  has  behind  it 

ent   .nd   therefore  mysterious.     The   range  marks   the 
vrtual  hrnit  of  timber,  on  the  other  side  1  nigh 
W.I0W  tufted  tundra  sloping  very  slightly  and  gradual  y 
to  the  polar  sea.     All  who  have  traversed  that  plain! 
from  Frankhn  to  Stefansson,  describe  it  as  the  drearies 
waste  m  the  world.       =pt  by  merciless  bli^^ards  all  th 

Tnir/'  ]fr"^""^  "^y  '""Edible  clouds  of  venomous 
insects  all  the  summer. 

tain^Th  J°R  "  T  "'T  '  '"'"''*'*  '''^  Lookout  Moun- 
tarn  behhd  Settles  and  looked  up  the  valley  of  the  John 
R.ver.  wh.ch  seems  to  cut  right  through  the  range  as  it 
comes  down  from  the  north  to  its  confluence  with  the 
K  yukuk  at  th.s  point,  and  to  present,  as  -n  fact  it  does 
present,  the  beginning  of  the  most  direct  highway  to  the 
Arctic  coast.  And  as  I  gazed  upon  the  rows  oJ  sharp 
da^zl  ngly  white  peaks  between  which  the  valley  passes 

llTllr  K^f  J'''  ^■°""'"''  '°  "°'^  ^•'^  --"tains' 
and  get  behmd  them   and   see  for  myself  that  vague 

ZLTr  °K  '''  ^°''''  '""'  ^'^'^  '^^  --°t«=  and' 
'Uttered  hype.boreans  who  dwe-1  upon  its  icy  shore 

eIevIr"'r''''"/""°''  ^"^"  ''="'  "°°<J  °"  the  same 
elevation  ( twas  he  who  named  it),  in  the  early  part  of 


n 


,   1  ' 


350  INFULHI-LED  ASHRAHUNS 

A.«u..  whe«  the  mountains  ^"^ ^;::ZT"1^ 

same  enthusiasm  for  the  view,  „,,hwav  it  af- 

r     mv  oa"i    till  cherish  the  hope  and  expectation  of 

r"^Lhe  Arct^^lope  and  traversing  the  shore  of  the 

visitmg  the  Arctic  ^lop  circumvent   those 

my  time  when  the  storms  ar 

mosquitoes  have  not  yet  arrived.     The  spring 

"^Tl^^^am'ciTe'john  River  is  bound  up  with  onel 

r:::;t:"a^-^^^-t~^\L^r 

ct  down  from  the  lips  of  those  who  were  on  the  Y  kon 

at  the  time  and  themselves  not  "-°""^^«^.;;'  ^„, 

When   Lieutenanc    Allen    started   on   h.s   explonn 

iouly  in  .885  he  picked  up  an  old  Scotchman  name 

home.     Bremner   had    been    imfessed    by    the    upp 


m  n 


MURDER  OF  BREMNER  35, 

Koyukuk  country  a%  prcpectinp  ground  and  remained 
on  the  Yukon  that  he  might  visit  it  again.  This  he  did 
in  company  with  ^  partner  named  Johnson  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1886  and  again  in  the  summer  of  18H7,  going  to 
the  site  of  Settles  and  ascending  the  stream  that  is  con- 
fluent  with  the  Koyukuk  near  that  point,  which  Allen 
called  the  "Fickett"  River,  after  one  of  his  military 
command. 

On  returning  from  this  third  visit  to  the  upper  Koyu- 
kuk, as  he  was  rowing  his  boat  to  the  bank  at  Dolmika- 
ket.  a  native  village  a  lit-le  below  the  cut-off,  now 
abandoned,  Bremner  was  shot  and  killed  by  an  Indian 
and  his  boat  ar     possessions  were  stolen. 

The  next  nmer  word  of  the  murder  reached  the 
miners  assembled  at  "Nuclayette"  on  the  Yukon,  await- 
ing the  trip  of  the  steambnts  from  St.  Michael  with 
their  annual  supplies,  and  re  was  great  indignation 
and  a  general  feeling  that  wie  deed  must  be  avenged. 
John  Bremner  was  an  old  and  kindly  man,  quiet  and 
inoflfensive;  those  who  knew  him  were  confident  that 
he  could  have  given  no  provocation;  if  this  outrage  were 
unnoticed  whose  life  would  be  safe.?  So  a  plan  was 
made,  and  when  the  two  boats,  the  New  Racket  and  the 
Prospector  came  up,  the  latter  was  "commandeered,"  as 
we  would  say  nowadays,  by  a  party  of  miners  under  the 
leadership  of  Hank  Wright  and  was  taken  up  the  Koyu- 
kuk to  the  village  at  Dolmikaket.  A  demand  for  the 
surrender  of  the  murderer  was  complied  with,  and  he 
was  carried  down  to  the  Koyukuk  mouth  and  there 
hanged,  and  the  steamboat  was  brought  back  to  Nucla- 


I) 


I  < 


f\  l> 


3Sa 


VICIOUS  INDIANS 


yette  and  restored  to  McQuesten,  Harper,  and  Mayo, 

the  owners.  . 

It  were  easy  to  conclude  the  narrative  of  this  prompt 
retribution  with  the  lines  of  Kipling: 

"Then  a  silence  came  to  the  river 
And  a  hush  fell  over  the  shore 
And  Bohs  that  were  brave  departed 
And  Sniders  squibbed  no  more." 

I  have  told  of  several  crimes  of  the  Koyukuk  Indians 
and  of  their  bad  repute  from  the  day  of  the  Nulato 
massacre,  yet  it  would  not  be  just  to  assume  that  such 
bloody  and  treacherous  acts  represent  common  occur- 
rences, since  they  are,  in  faet,  the  only,  or  almost  the 
only  such  occurrences  in  seventy  years'  intercourse  with 
the  whites.     Men  still  living  in  the  country  who  knew 
these  people  thirty  years  ago,  at  the  time  of  Bremner  s 
murder,  speak  of  them  as  gentle  and  kindly  and  remark- 
ably honest.    Chapman,  of  Rampart,  the  discoverer  of 
coarse  gold  in  the  Koyukuk  at  Tramway  Bar,  between 
Bettles  and  Coldfoot,  who  knew  Bremner  and  his  part- 
ner tells  me  that  his  caches  were  never  violated,  thougn 
they  often  contained  articles  of  the  utmost  value  to  the 
Indians,  such  as  knives,  guns,  and  ammunition,  and  that 
in  all  his  long  intercourse  with  them  he  had  nothing  but 
kindness  at  their  hands. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  the  case  of  the  murder  of  Brem- 
ner as  in  the  case  of  the  Nulato  massacre,  that  the  crime 
was  instigated  by  the  medicine-men,  who  wielded  almost 
always  the  sinister  influence  in  the  lives  of  these  Indians, 
and  on  the  lower  river,  to  some  extent,  do  so  yet.    But, 


A  MINING  ENTREPOT  jjj 

aside  f™„,  that,  here  is  a  tribe  with,  at  the  most,  let  us 

ades.  That  hardly  warrants  a  very  evil  name.  It  is  by 
contrast  w.th  the  other  Indians  of  the  interior  that  a 
bad  name  has  attached  itself  to  the  Koyukans.  and  that 
bad  name,  therefore,  bears  tribute  to  the  gentleness  and 
peaceableness  of  the  aborigines  of  interio?  Alaska  asf 

nver  that  Bremner  was  so  much  interested  in  as  "Old 
John  s  R.ver,"  and  "John  River"  has  become  f«ed  upon 
the^stream  to  the  ent.re  displacement  of  the  name  Allen 

rfennt";''''  u^'"^-  '■  ""  '''""^  '^'  ^^th  parallel,  is  the 
depot  for  the  mmmg-district  which  begins  here  and 
stretches  a  farther  seventy-five  miles  up  the  river.    The 

brought  h,ther  by  steamboat,  are  carried  hence  by  othT 
and  slower  and  more  expensive  means  of  transportation 
to  the  creeks  where  there  are  diggings.  Chief  amongst 
th  m  .s  the  horse-scow,  a  large,  flat,  double-bottomed 
bateau,  wh.ch  .s  propelled  by  gasolene-engines  through 
the  deeper  reaches  and  hauled  by  the  horses  over  the 
shallows  and  the  ...s,  one  of  its  bottoms  being  scraped 
and  torn  off  each  season  .„d  replaced  before  the  next 
Ihe  pomt  of  maximum  mining  activity  varies  from  year 
to  year,  but  is  commonly  at  the  other  end  of  the  district 
and  the  bulk  of  the  supplies  are  carried  from  sixty-five 

an  end  before  all  the  freight  is  removed,  and  when  the 


ii 


t'i 


354  THE  KOYUKUK  FORKS 

winter  is  set  in,  horse-sleds  and  dog-sleds  are  used  and 
Weighting  goes  on  more  or  less  all  the  wmter  over  the 
e     The  employment  of  horses  depends  upon  the  we  the 

and  the  precipitation.    In  the  last  winter  (.0.^17)  the 
ana  tne  prcL  y  j^^^.  ^^ 

snowfaU  was  so  heavy  and  the  spells  01  coi 
long  that  horses  could  be  used  very  httle  an.  ate^^h 
heads  off  several  times  over  m  the  stables.     Winter 
Shting  with  dog  teams  gives  employment  to  a  ba^ 
of  eight  or  ten  Kobuks,  who.  with  the.r  fam.hes,  make 
Betdes  their  headquarters,  and  the  white  men  come  and 
„o   so  that  the  place  is  not  without  activity  wmter  as 
iVas  summer.    A  new  strike  on  the  John  River,  con 
fluent  at  Bettles.  was  still  further  contnbutmg  to  the 
business  of  the  place  when  last  I  was  there 

The  Koyukuk  flows  roughly  parallel  with  the  Endi- 
cott  Range  until  Bettles  is  reached,  and  there  turns  from 
a  general  westerly  to  a  general  southwesterly  direction^ 
TuLg  therefore  to  the  east  f  ^^^^^'^^r^U- 
stream,  we  pursue  the  course  "^  ^l^^Tft  td  ^ie  rid«e 
tween  the  Endicott  Mountains  on  ^h^  ^t -n<|  ^J^  ""^se 
that  divides  the  Middle  Fork  from  the  South  Fork  on 
the  right,  with  not  much  scope  for  tributary  dramage,  fo 
.t  p  L  the  two  forks  of  the  river  are  only  a  few  m.les 
pa't.  and  the  streams  that  come  down  from  th^ rno  n 
tains  are  little  more  than  mountam  torrents.    Between 
B  "and  Coldfoot  the  North  Fork.  Wild  Creek  and 
"?welve  Mile"  are  received  and  money  has  been  take^ 
out  of  all  three.    Great  expectations,  were  entertamed 
orWild  Creek  a  little  while  since,  but  they  have  not 
been  realised. 


jitf 


I  li 


iA 


M'l 


MINING  ECONOMICS 


355 


It  will  be  understood  that  it  is  not  every  gold  de- 
posit that  will  pay  for  working  in  a  mining-camp  where 
the  cost  of  operation  is  as  great  as  it  is  here.  Not  only 
is  the  Koyukuk  camp  the  most  northerly  in  Alaska  and 
perhaps  in  the  world  (I  do  not  think  the  Siberian  placers 
are  so  far  north),  but  its  difficulties  of  transportation 
are  greater  than  any  other.  Even  ground  that  would  be 
counted  very  rich  in  other  districts  may  yield  but  a 
narrow  margin  of  profit  when  the  balance  between 
receipt  and  expenditure  is  struck.  By  reason  of  the 
higher  latitude  the  season  is  shorter  here  than  in 
any  other  Alaskan  camp,  and  the  winters  are  on  the 
average  more  severe;  while  the  proximity  of  the 
.nountains  causes  a  heavier  snowfall  than  the  Yukon 
receives. 

There  is  only  one  limit  to  the  overcoming  of  physical 
difSculties  in  gold-mining,  and  that  is  the  limit  of  cost. 
If  sufficiently  rich  defxisits  were  discovered  on  the  north 
coast  of  Greenland  or  Grant  Land,  thither  the  adven- 
turous spirits  would  flock,  nor  would  three  months  of 
total  darkness  prove  any  deterrent.  If  nuggets  were 
brought  down  from  the  highest  rock-ridge  of  Denali 
(Mt.  McKinley),  from  nineteen  thousand  fe  there 
would  soon  be  men  digging  and  blasting  at  that  attitude 
and  incidentally  teaching  the  scientific  world  something 
fresh  about  the  possibility  of  human  labour  under  a 
pressure  of  half  an  atmosphere.  New  conditions  would 
be  met  by  new  expedients;  cylinders  of  oxygen  might 
become  part  of  the  miner's  "outfit,"  and  a  two-hour  law 
replace  the  eight-hour  law,  but  if  gold  were  present  in 


M' 


1  ii 


!^!ll. 


^  M 


356  A  SPECULATIVE  INDUSTRY 

sufficient  quantity  to  warrant  the  cost  of  obtaining  it,  it 

would  be  obtained.  .  . 

Some  of  the  men  who  make  money  in  placer-mmmg 
go  outside  with  it  at  once  and  enter  upon  some  busmess 
they  have  always  contemplated  with  the  capital  they 
have  secured.     Probably  all  of  them  have  the  purpose 
of  returning  when  they  come  into  the  country.    I  thmk 
very  few  deliberately  intend  to  spend  their  lives  here. 
But  it  is  commonly  true  that  the  man  who  makes  money 
in  one  gold-mining  venture  is  easily  moved  to  mvest  it 
in  another.    There  is  never  much  difficulty  in  obtaining 
the  capital  to  develop  a  mining-claim  that  "looks  good. 
And  such  are  the  chances  inherent  in  this  occupation 
that  all  the  money  taken  out  of  one  hole  in  the  ground 
may  very  quickly  be  sunk  in  another.    Good  prospects 
are  obtained  on  a  new  creek;  a  hole  is  laboriously  driven 
to  bed-rock  and  indisputable  "pay"  is  discovered;  any 
one  who  is  interested  may  go  down  and  "pan    for  him- 
self    But  in  order  to  work  the  claim  to  any  advantage, 
perhaps  even  to  work  it  at  all,  machinery  must  be  pro- 
cured, and  a  half-interest  awaits  any  one  who  will  pro- 
vide the  money  to  procure  it.    So  the  man  who  has  made 
money  on  another  creek  goes  into  partnership  with  the 
new  discoverer,  and  operations  on  a  substantial  scale  are 
undertaken,  only  to  find,  perhaps,  that  the  original  shaft 
was  sunk  on  a  "pocket"  and  that  no  drifting  however 
extensive  and  expensive  will  disclose  a  pay  streak.    And 
the  man  that  had  a  "home  stake"  and  was  hesitating 
between  an  immediate  withdrawal  and  "one  more  shot 
finds  himself  working  for  wages  again,  or  starting  off  on 


THE  ELEMENT  OF  CHANCE  357 

a  prospecting  trip  with  nothing  left  after  buying  his 
winter's  outfit.  On  the  other  hand,  the  venture  may 
succeed,  and  with  increased  capital  comes  the  itch  to 
mcrease  it  still  more;  with  judgment  justified  comes  a 
pride  of  judgment  which  may  lead  to  a  heavier  fall. 
The  most  dangerous  delusion  of  the  placer-miner  "  I 
have  heard  it  said,  "is  that  he  can  tell  what  is  under 
the  ground  from  looking  at  the  surface."  Yet  the  very 
man  of  whom  this  was  said  has  gone  from  success  to 
success  until  he  is  now  a  very  wealthy  man.  Here  is  an 
occupation  in  which  sheer  luck  is  the  prime  factor,  and 
luck  runs  in  strange  streaks. 

A  claim-owner  on  Nolan  Creek  gave  away  one 
hundred  feet  of  the  upper  part  of  his  claim  and  one 
hundred  feet  of  the  lower  part  to  two  diflFerent  men  be- 
cause the  holes  they  would  sink  would  prospect  the  re- 
mamder  of  the  claim-would  locate  the  pay,  if  pay  they 
found,  and  mdicate  to  him  where  best  to  s-'nk.  Such  a 
deal  is  not  uncommon  in  placer-mining  in  sep  ground 
Both  of  these  men  took  out  "home  stakes, '  but  on  the 
remamder  of  the  claim  no  pay  at  all  has  been  found. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  technical 
skill  and  business  ability  play  no  part  in  placer-mining. 
Many  a  claun,  with  no  large  margin  between  the  "clean- 
up" and  the  expenses,  has  driven  its  owner  into  bank- 
ruptcy through  careless  and  extravagant  m?r>,gement, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  many  a  substar.ial  "home 
stake"  has  been  gathered  from  such  a  riaim  through 
skilled  operation  and  careful  husbandry. 

Some  who  take  their  fortunes  and  go  outside  after  a 


~K 


i; 


*    i' 


ml 


358  MINING-CAMP  AITRACTIONS 

number  of  years  in  this  country  find  the  humdrum  rou- 
tine of  business  insupportable  and  return.  The  cherished 
desire  of  many  a  miner  is  to  buy  a  "fruit-farm"  of  some 
sort  in  one  of  the  Pacific  coast  States,  or  a  dairy-farm  or 
a  chicken-ranch.  A  good  many  such  enterprises  have 
been  started  by  men  from  Alaska,  and  a  good  many  of 
them  have  been  abandoned  after  a  few  years'  trial;  and 
men  who  had  shaken  the  dust  of  Alaska  off  their  feet 
turn  up  again  one  summer  in  the  old  haunts  amongst  the 
old  companions,  with  loud  expressions  of  relief  at  their 
escape  from  the  trammels  of  civilisation. 

Because  of  its  isolation  and  remoteness  and  difficulty, 
and  the  qualities  which  they  evoke,  the  Koyukuk  camp 
has  always  been  the  most  interesting  in  Alaska  to  me. 
It  is  a  small  camp,  averaging  perhaps  two  hundred  men, 
and  while  much  of  the  population  is  shifting  and  immigra- 
tion and  emigration  constantly  occur,  there  always  re- 
mains a  substantial  proportion  of  "old  Koyukukere" 
who  have  worked  on  one  creek  or  another  in  the  district 
for  a  number  of  years  and  maintain  certain  standards 
and  conventions  not  always  to  be  found  elsewhere. 

I  think  some  of  the  best  men  that  Alaska  contains  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Koyukuk,  and  I  will  not  say  that  some 
of  the  worst  are  not  there  also.  It  is  commonly  said, 
and  I  think  with  ground,  that  more  whisky  is  consumed 
here  per  capita  than  in  any  other  community  in  Alaska 
and  perhaps  in  the  world,  and  that  the  cost  of  it  exceeds 
the  whole  cost  of  the  food  imported  into  the  camp,  high 
as  that  cost  is.  Yet  at  the  election  in  November,  1916, 
when  the  voters  were  called  upon  to  declare  their  wishes 


EVILS  OF  ALCOHOL  359 

on  the  question  of  the  prohibition  of  alcohohc  liquors 
in  the  Territory,  the  vote  of  the  Koyukuk  was  over- 
whelmingly "dry." 

It  is  this  remarkable  circumstance,  not  confined  to 
the  Koyukuk  though  conspicuous  there,  the  circumstance 
that  the  vote  for  prohibition  was  so  largely  the  vote  of 
habitual  drmkers,  that  gives  me  hope  about  the  execu- 
tion  of  the    bone-dry  "  law  which  Congress  has  just  passed 
in  response  to  that  vote.     Here  is  not  a  deprivation 
miposed  by  exterior  power,  here  is  virtually  a  petition 
from  the  users  of  alcohol  praying  that  they  may  be  de- 
prived of  It.    Such  a  vote  is  the  best  justification  of  the 
prohibition  movement.    "We  like  it;  if  we  have  the  chance 
we  will  drmk  it.  but  we  know  it  is  keeping  us  poor  and 
turning  body  and  soul,  and  we  ask  that  it  be  taken  away 
and  not  allowed  any  more  to  come  in."    Total  abstinence 
being  thus  self-imposed,  I  do  not  think  there  will  be  the 
efforts  to  evade  it  that  I  should  expect  had  the  measure 
been  othenv.se  secured.    The  weight  of  public  sentiment 
will,  I  think,  be  with  the  prohibition  law  instead  of 
being  against  it. 

The  benefit  that  will  result  to  Alaska  from  the  thor- 
ough execution  of  this  measure  is  incalculable.  At  a 
blow  it  will  remove  the  chief  provocation  of  crime  and 
lust,  the  most  fertile  breeder  of  thriftlessness  and  pov- 
erty and,  if  not  one  of  the  largest  direct  causes  of  disease 
certainly  the  chief  exacerbator  thereof  and  hindrance  to 
healmg.  I  think  a  large  proportion  of  mishaps  on  the 
'ce  and  on  the  water,  above  ground  and  underground 
are  directly  referable  to  it.    Our  experience  at  the  ho.- 


hi 


Itf 


I 

I 


u 


360 


GOVERNMENTAL  DUALISM 


pital  in  Fairbanks  led  us  to  believe  that  three-fourths  of 
all  cases  of  severe  frost-bite  have  liquor  behind  them. 

It  will  mean  new  hope  for  the  native  people.  The 
denial  of  li.iuor  to  them  while  permitting  it  to  the  white 
man  has  alv  ays  chafed  a  certain  percentage  of  them  as  a 
stigma  of  ii  feriority.  With  the  removal  of  all  tempta- 
tion to  intoxication  will  go  the  great  threat  against  their 
survival  as  a  race. 

There  remains,  there  cannot  but  remain,  to  the  man 
familiar  with  Alaskan  conditions,  the  great  administra- 
tive If.  Now,  that  no  license  fees  will  be  obtainable  in 
the  Territory,  will  the  treasury  officials  interest  themselves 
in  hunting  out  illicit  stills  ?  Alaska,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered, was  once  before  under  a  congressional  prohibition 
law,  and  it  stands  on  record  to  the  lasting  disgrace  of 
the  most  cynical  department  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment that  its  officials  made  their  regular  rounds  and 
collected  their  regular  fees  from  liquor-dealers  openly 
defying  the  law,  despite  the  protests  of  the  governor. 
Moreover,  who  that  knows  the  feebleness  of  our  system 
of  magistracy  and  police  can  place  much  confidence  in 
its  efforts  to  enforce  any  law  ?  With  unpaid  justices  of 
the  peace  engaged  in  small  merchandising  and  timid 
lest  they  injure  their  business,  with  bibulous  deputy 
marshals  such  as  I  have  known  scheming  their  own  in- 
dulgence, who  can  be  without  fear  that  offences  against 
the  liquor  law  will  be  connived  at .' 

The  remoteness  and  difficulty  of  the  Koyukuk  camp 
have  engendered  a  feeling  of  comradeship  amongst  the 
miners  that  is  not  found,  I  think,  in  any  other  camp. 


A  COSMOPOLITAN  CAMP  g 

of  "Mohawks  "     Uv         M  ^  Preposterous  name 

much  chance  of  "strii^nVrrL'^s  at'one^  ^""  ^^ 
,.    Coldfoot,  at  the  .outh  o    Slate  Crir^'L  ,  , 


362 


PICTURESQUE  C»LDFOOT 


name  to  the  orisinal  intention  of  its  lettleri  of  going 
farther  up  the  river,  an  intention  which  succumbet'  to 
difficulty  and  fatigue— they  "got  cold  feet!"  Racy  of 
the  climate  and  of  the  people,  it  i«  a  name  to  be  cher- 
ished, one  of  our  few  settlement  names,  other  than  na- 
tive names,  that  are  neither  grandiose  nor  commonplace; 
"Anchorage"  on  Cook's  Inlet  ii  another,  a  happy  acci- 
dental naming,  "Sunrise"  on  the  same  Inlet  is  another, 
and  if  the  storekeepers  had  allowed  the  miner's  name  to 
remain  we  should  have  "Twilight"  in  the  Iditarod  in- 
stead of  one  more  "city." 

Coldfoot,  little  more  than  a  way  r*  'tion  now,  with  a 
road-house  and  store  combined,  a  number  of  empty  cab- 
ins and  a  very  few  occupied  ones,  lies  in  as  picturesque 
a  setting  of  lofty,  jagged  mountains  as  any  town  I  know, 
but  the  business  has  gone  from  it  to  Nolan,  at  the  mouth 
of  Wiseman  Creek,  some  fifteen  miles  farther  up,  and 
here  the  principal  stores,  the  saloon,  the  post-office,  the 
magistrate  and  the  marshal,  will  be  found;  for  Nolan 
Creek,  a  tributary  of  Wiseman,  is  at  present  the  chief 
producer  of  the  district. 

Six  miles  above  Nolan  the  Hammond  River  comes  in, 
whence  a  good  deal  of  gold  was  t'.ken  tw.  or  three  years 
since,  but  at  present  there  Is  not  much  mining  activity 
there.  Creeks  above  the  Hammond  River  and  creeks 
between  Nolan  and  Coldfoot  have  yielded  gold,  and  there 
is  always  a  number  of  men  scattered  in  twos  .nd  threes 
here  and  there  throughout  the  district  making  a  little 
money  by  the  cruder  methods  of  mining,  but  the  main 
output  of  the  camp  for  a  number  of  years  past  has  been 


UNNAVIGABLE  STREAMS  363 

from  Nolan  Creek  and  the  Hammond  River.  A  little 
beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Hammond  River  (which  i,  no 
".ore  than  a  creek)  the  Koyukuk  forks  near  the  68th 
parallel  mto  the  Settle,  and  the  Dietrich  River,  which 
are  mountam  ,tream.  quite  unnavigable,  and  ,eem,  to 
paw  beyond  its  auriferou,  belt. 


I 


i  I 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  CHAGELUK  SLOUGH.    THE  INNOKO  AND 
IDITAROD  RIVERS 

Turning  straight  across  the  broad  river  from  Holy 
Cross  Mission,  we  enter  the  Chageluic  Slough,  and  are 
surprised  and  pleased  to  find  ourselves  in  clear  water 
again.  Save  for  the  few  hundred  yards  that  we  turned 
up  the  Anvik  River,  this  is  the  first  clear  water  that  we 
have  seen  for  a  long  time,  and  the  Pelican  is  glad  to  have 
it  running  through  her  cylinder-jackets  and  her  cooling 
system,  washing  out  the  mud  that,  despite  all  filtering 
anH  settling,  has  been  deposited. 

The  Chageluk  Slough  is  an  arm  of  the  Yukon  River 
that  left  it  forty  miles  above  Anvik  to  wind  far  away 
from  the  main  stream  and  make  a  great  island  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  miles  wide  in  places  by  its  return  after  a 
tortuous  course  of  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 
Some  twenty  miles  or  so  after  leaving  the  Yukon  the 
slough  receives  the  waters  of  the  Innoko  River,  greatly 
in  excess  of  the  small  stream  that  it  withdrew  from  the 
Yukon,  and,  the  Innoko  being  a  clear  stream,  the  slough 
itself  is  clear  from  that  time. 

Until  the  gold  discoveries  on  the  Innoko  in  1906-7, 
indeed  until  the  stampede  to  the  Iditarod  in  1910,  the 
Chageluk  Slough  was  little  frequented  by  white  men. 
Remote  from  routes  of  travel,  its  native  inhabitants  were 
perhaps  the  most  primitive  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  in- 

)64 


■;m  1  '  ( 


A  MOSQUITO  RENDEZVOUS 


365 

Anvik  and  traversed    h/!!       w  '"terpreter  from 

-ce  then,  L  onV^^^X^Z    ^ 'r ''''''''' 
quitoes.    I  think  third  t  ,  ^''^"S^d-the  mos- 

The  Yukon  N  hm.^       i  '°'  mosquitoes. 

.<"  bank.  ,h,  „„,  ZZt'-J^  27'1  "','"1  *""  ■" 
vocal  with  ,hdr  hum   i,  '         "''*  '*» 

ful  summer  night  in  New  DrU  ^^''" 

fo  Cose,,  do  th^e  suhtro^^^dl^S/r  ^f" 
■mate  m  certain  respects  at  certain  times  """" 

Native  hfe  at  such  seasons  is  miserable  .  u 
mosquito  nets  are  rare  and  nn.  ■  "^''''  ^"°"8h; 
^or  the  young  children' whose  I:  TT''  ^°^'^ 
«ith  the  red  punctures  oTTh  ''^''"  '°^"«'' 

"smudge"    is   the   chief         '      ^'""'"""^  P«^^-     The 

threshcSdofeve'   .atfor"?'"   '^'T^'   ^"'^   °"   ^""^ 

-^^".ofits;:;^:— s;^^;^ 


!iii 


366 


ESKIMO  CLUB-HOUSE 


V! 


1  the  lesser  of  the  two 


irritating  to  the  eyes,  but  that 
evils. 

It  was  on  this  occasion  that  I  first  saw  the  inside  of 
a  Kazhime.  The  mosquitoes  were  so  bad  that  an  out- 
door gathering  was  impossible,  and  the  peculiar  insti- 
tution to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  dealing  with 
Anvik  was  put  at  my  disposal.  The  Kazhime  is  the 
men's  sweat-bath  and  club-house,  the  abode  of  the  un- 
married men  and  the  entertainment  house  for  '••■.itors. 
The  large  cavernous  chamber,  more  than  half  under- 
ground, with  a  roof  rising  only  slightly  above  the  level 
of  the  earth,  was  entered  by  a  tunnel  closed  with  a  raw- 
hide flap.  In  the  midst  the  fire  yet  smouldered,  its  smoke 
eddying  up  to  the  domed  roof  and  there  escaping  through 
the  only  vent  in  the  building.  All  around  were  shelves 
on  which  nude  men  were  reclining,  the  sweat-bath  just 
over,  their  forms  dimly  visible  in  the  gloom;  and  beside 
each  man  was  the  little  pot  containing  the  excrementary 
detergent  he  had  been  using  to  remove  the  grease  from 
his  body.  Soap  has  superseded  it  now  all  through  the 
country,  but  one  must  remember  that  before  the  white 
man  came  there  was  no  soap  nor  knowledge  of  how  to 
make  it,  and  let  that  remembrance  temper  one's  dis- 
gust. The  men  drew  on  some  garments,  the  fire  was 
dampened  down,  and  the  place  was  ready. 

I  do  not  think  women  are  commonly  admitted  to  the 
Kazhime  at  all,  but  at  my  request  they  were  presently 
allowed  to  gather  at  the  inside  of  the  entrance,  and  by 
the  mouth  of  an  excellent  interpreter  I  spoke  to  the 
strange  audience  in  this  strange  gathering-place.     Now 


i 


tim  I 


i 

P 

i 

11 

ffi  I 

Wjk      nt  ^ 

M  llf  1' 

m 

11 

PRIMITIVE  MAN'S  CLAIMS  367 

and  then  the  dying  embers  lit  up  the  savage  surrounding. 
With  a  lur.d  glare  which  was  reflected  from  the  column 
of  smol;e  upon  the  dusky  faces  of  the  assembly     There 
was  an  indescribable  odour,  ancient  and  fish-like,  mil- 
dewed and  sudorific,  that  was  almost  overpowering  at 
first  but  that  one  gradually  grew  accustomed  to.    It  was 
fittmg  scene  for  witchcraft  and  ghoulish  rites,  and  I  won- 
dered what  pagan  mysteries   had  last  been  celebrated 
there,  what  w>ld  sorceries  it  would  next  witness.    Then 
a^l  at  once  while  I  was  speaking  there  came  to  my  mind 
the  recollecfon  of  the  subterranean  stable  in  which  one 

It'  T  t^  '"°'^""  ""'"'"^  ''^^  P'^"'J  'he  nativity  of 
our  Lord.  There  were  the  same  heavy  beams  of  rough- 
hewn  timber  the  same  general  grime  and  gloom,  the 
same  half-clad,  simple-minded,  wondering  folk  grouped 
at  the  entrance;  and  I  hailed  the  resemblance  as  of 
happy  auguiy.  I  dare  say  that  most  memorable  stable 
aid  not  smell  any  too  sweet. 

It  is  so  foolishly  easy  to  be  scornful  of  primitive 
people,  to  sweep  them  aside  with  a  contemptuous  epithet 
or  two  as  unworthy  a  white  man's  notice.  I  have  heard 
a  hoodlum  from  the  slums  of  San  Francisco  (and  not 
London  or  Paris  can  produce  worse)  speak  in  such  way 
of  the  Yukon  Indian,  and  I  once  heard  a  gentleman  of 
education  from  the  East  say  that  he  did  not  know  what 
dirt  was  unfil  he  had  visited  some  native  villages  of 
Alaska.  Yet  I  learned  afterwards  that  this  man  owned 
tenements  m  the  slums  of  New  York. 

I  do  not  think  I  like  dirt  more  than  others  and  I  am 
engaged  m  a  ceaseless  campaign  against  it,  but  there  is  a 


i     I 


m 


Mi 


t 


\       l.\: 


m 


IS 


IM   ! 


368 


RACIAL  SNOBBISHNESS 


certain  snobbish  consciousness  of  cleanliness  that  I  grow 
very  wearied  with.    If  "  Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coro- 
nets and  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood,"  so,  we  were 
told  long  ago,  are  they  more  than  the  washing  of  hands 
and  the  cleansing  of  pots  and  platters;  and  if  the  cher- 
ishing of  a  scrupulously  clean  habit  in  all  things  g.ve 
rise  to  a  feeling  of  large  superiority,  then  I  think  that  for 
those  so  unfortunate  in  their  environment  as  to  be  al- 
most unavoidably  debarred  therefrom,  or  in  their  igno- 
rance as  to  be  indifferent  or  even  disinclined  thereto,  it 
should  produce  a  correspondingly  large  compassion  in- 
stead of  mere  scorn  and  cpntempt. 

Aside  from  this  particular  matter,  I  find  myself  per- 
haps too  easily  vexed  by  the  calm  assumption  of  the  in- 
finite distance  that  separates  the  Indian  from  the  white 
man,  merely  because  he  is  a  white  man.    I  am  no  foe  to 
racial  distinctions  any  more  than  I  am  to  social  dis- 
tinctions, and  certainly  no  friend  to  the  admixture  of 
bloods;  I  do  not  view  with  complacency  the  solution  of 
racial  problems  by  the  absorption  of  the  "lesser  breeds 
into  the  overwhelming  white  race;  I  hate  the  thing  even 
though  I  cannot  shuc  my  eyes  to  it.    I  do  not  see  why 
different  races  should  not  perpetuate  themselves,,  with 
their  special  cultures  and  their  special  tongues;  and  I 
think  the  world  will  be  a  much  less  interesting  world, 
and  not  on  that  score  one  whit  the  better  world,  when 
all  the  little  peoples  shaU  have  been  absorbed,  all  pic- 
turesque distinction  of  custom  and  costume  broken  down, 
and  a  thousand  vigorous,  elastic,  indigenous  languages 
superseded  by  "pidgin  English."    From  some  points  of 


COMPULSORY  ENGLISH  ^g, 

view  the  vaunted  "march  of  civilisation  "  >.  .  ^ 

ape's  marc,  that  l„ds  nowhere  " '°  ■"«  =« -"^re 

'ong  that  therc::„T7orc: t  VnVtt^  '  '""^  ^^ 
^^^  throats  of  their  InlV  .^  as  S ^^^  '°^" 
speech,  and  it  i,  th^  ».  j        '•""'a"   as  the   common 

Education  to  s  every  ::fsS  ""'""  °'  ^'''^  «"--  "^ 
the  native  tongues     ^et  '"''"'  "''  ^^^•"P'"S  °"t 

-tdea,of^:-,initrrJ:rt;7"^^^ 

the  i:    n",;;~  ^^V%dah  tongue  by  ado  tLg 
years.' ••    OnrnSrth"  "^"^''^P^'^-g  town  in  five 
village  of  these  H         ZZ'J^:'-'  '^^'  "P""  'he 
nativesofthesoutheasternlst       ;;X^^^ 
as  well  as  the  most  skilful  artificers  -with  „  '"?'     ' 

h-hethi^^^tiXoS^sSefr-^^' 
out  a  thing  like  that  gives  one  J  A  '''""""S 

"Bannochar's,..^.  ro:rsrga?r:;Ld^::;-^^^ 

Scott's  "Hail  to  the  Chief"  J^  '         "  ^^''" 

later  in  an  interes  i„g  ^  ol"  "'  "^''""''  '°  '"^ 


f  i 


J      I 


^lil.l 


,"ilit: 


370  PRESERVING  NATIVE  SPEECH 

to  chatter  and  shout  their  mother  tongue  rather  than 
twist  their  mouths  around  the  unaccustomed  combina- 
tions of  consonants  with  which  English  bristles  ?  The 
fetters  of  a  strange  tongue  may  be  endured  in  the  school- 
room, but  how  can  there  be  relaxation  and  recreation  until 
they  be  thrown  off  ? 

To  my  mind  the  policy  is  unwise  and  futile.  It  is 
probable  that  the  English  speech  will  prevail  over  the 
native  speech  of  these  peoples  by  natural  process,  though 
in  many  places  it  will  be  a  long  time  yet  and  I  cannot 
see  to  s?.ve  my  life  why  it  is  so  devoutly  to  be  wished; 
but  there  is  no  sort  of  advantage  in  seeking  to  expedite  the 
process  beyond  its  natural  rate,  nor  in  repressing  the  In- 
dian tongue  by  speaking  contemptuously  of  it,  and,  as  far 
as  may  be,  proscribing  its  use.  It  smacks  too  much  of  the 
Prussians  in  Poland  ?nd,  while  it  may  enlist  some  "smart- 
Alec"  youths  who  like  to  feel  themselves  superior  to 
their  elders,  will  arouse  the  latent  conservatism  of  the 
race  to  a  deliberate  retention  of  what  might  otherwise 
unconsciously  lapse.  Such  a  course  is,  indeed,  not  un- 
likely to  perpetuate  the  tongue'.. 

There  has  been  a  government  school  for  some  years 
now  on  the  Chageluk  Slough,  and  I  suppose  there  is  the 
same  effort  to  make  the  children  speak  English.  I  am 
not  sure  if  it  were  the  second  or  the  third  of  the  teacher- 
(they  change  every  year)  who  announced  in  my  hearing 
that  the  teacher  and  his  wife  "has  came";  and  my  mis- 
sion-bred native  boy,  after  some  talk  with  him,  puzzled 
with  his  ungrammatical  speech,  said:  "I  think  he  must 
be  some  sort  of  foreigner,  he  talks  broken  English." 


TYPES  OF  TEACHERS  j^, 

a  duly  commissioned  I^L'      '  "  ''""''"'  '^''  ^e  was 

sent  7!::^z^^tr ''  '^'"■"'  °^  "-^  -^"-^ 

contrary,  he  wrtheLt        ""  "'  '^'"""'°"'  °"  '"e 

undertake  the  l.Te  o  r  "  '"'  "°'''^"  °'' ^""-^  to 
We  have  hi  o  f^:  tS  ""^  -'?'^''  ''  Solves, 
own  incompetents  even  nl  '"  "'"""«  "°'-''"''>  °"r 
though  we  ha"  not  se^  thefeT  °"  ''""  '"'""'«' 
But  I  think  there  is  st.  tt  .'  ''  '^''°°'-'"---hing. 
anybody  can  teach  L.  "''^  '"  assumption  that 

dispensing  with  tt".''"""^  "''°°'^'  '"^  -ady  a 
era.cultufe:  cht  ;;reSrV^^''  ^^  '''  «-- 
efficiency  and  broadTulXrpVtlr  ^  ret  ^ ''T -'■^'' 
to  add  that  I  have  known  ,.^    P^'^^'     ^«  me  hasten 

of  the  bureau  who  hro  ^  1,^^:'"°"^"/''^  ^"^''- 
qualities  and  training  ofmin"  an  T  "'  '''"'''' 
and  who  brought  aiso^Inl^  ?  character  required, 
can  hire.*  '°^'  ""^  ^  ''^^°»''°"  that  no  money 

The  difference  between   thp   t„j- 
■»•»,  ..idc  f.o™  ,1,,  cluTo  1    ,     "-  '"■'  "■"  "'"■« 


'i  (• 


If.'  i  t 


N  i' 


!!' 


372        CONDITIONS  OF  INDIAN   PROGRESS 

inheritance.    I  have  seen  Indian  boys,  mission-bred,  who 
were  more  intelligent,  more  advanced  in  the  usual  subjects 
of  study,  better-mannered,  kindlier,  and  higher-minded, 
than  the  average  white  boy  of  similar  years— and  who 
spoke  much  better  English,  besides  speaking  their  native 
tongue.    I  do  not  mean  that  they  were  better  in  these 
respects  than  the  average  white  boy  would  have  been  had 
he  had  the  same  training;  I  mean  just  what  I  say.    And 
I  would  venture  that  if  I  might  take  my  pick  of  the  boys 
of  this  fish-eating  Chageluk  village,  whose  fathers  lay 
around  the  shelves  of  the  sweat-bath  availing  themselves 
of  the  ammoniacal  constituents  of  their  own  urine  to 
remove  the  grease  from  their  bodies;  that  if  I  might  take 
my  pick  of  the  young  boys  of  this  village  and  submit  the 
one   selected   to   the   same   mission   regimen— physical, 
mental,  and  moral— there  would  be  good  chance  of  the 
production  of  a  man  who  should  excel  in  all  that  makes 
and  adorns  real  manhood. 

The  waterway  that  we  are  pursuing  is  tortuous  and 
the  scenery  tame.  Densely  wooded  banks  bar  any  pros- 
pect beyond  them,  and  mile  after  mile  we  wind  amidst 
the  willows  and  the  cottonwood  and  the  spruce.  Oc- 
casionally a  hill  rises  to  break  the  monotony;  here  and 
there  a  fish  camp  appears,  here  and  there  a  little  native 
village.  The  current  is  not  swift,  and  the  launch  makes 
good  time  against  it,  her  engines  rejoicing,  as  I  always 
think,  in  the  clean  water  that  is  circulating  through  them. 
Just  at  the  mouth  of  the  Innoko,  when  we  have  tra- 
versed nigh  an  hundred  miles  of  this  placid  and  monoto- 
nous waterway,  we  come  to  the  most  important  village  on 


CONTRASTS  OK  R.VER  .sce^krv  „, 

visit  the  place;  noLany  yea.   ,f„;;'''"  """"  "'''  '" 
''i»^c.ve.ip,e.o..i:^^-;':;:~-;^y'He 

vi".«ena.e^^n:r;;;:"ts'^tv"r-'"^ 

beautiful   «r,,™       ■  i.        ■  "*■""'•     '  he  Innoko   s  a 

vers,-  ed  w  rb";h^:';  "'"^''   '"'-'y   ''-'''   "'- 

<aw„..ike  s    pe    i,  '"TT  """"''""  '''''  S^^^. 

the  t;;  ;    :775-;-  ---c-aHy  ..nee  It  ha! 

--i.pinc:i::t;:;;;i^2:::j';^-'» 

nakatna.  or  Iditarod  "'"utao,  the  Yet- 

rnnoko"^a;;:„Te:stT„cf  "'"^'■' '''  '^"--^ '--  ^'^ 

another  part  of  rh.     .  ?       ^"  "^"^  "^"''"^vs  over 

repeat  r.^J^tZrlr'l  ''''  °""  ^^  ^ 


h 


374 


AN  ANFRACTl'OUS  RIVER 


in  our  own  direction,  but  after  an  hour  or  to  it  it  en- 
countered going  in  the  opposite  direction;  or  it  may  ap- 
pear to  be  coming  full  steam  towards  us  and  later  in  the 
day  may  overtake  us  on  our  own  journey. 

There  is  no  ordinary  word  adequate  to  the  tortuous- 
nesa  of  this  strean.,  but  there  is  a  word  that  Doctor 
Johnson  used  that  I  always  think  of  in  connection  with 
it.  He  spoke  of  the  anfractuosiiifs  of  the  human  mind, 
and  if  I  speak  of  the  anfractuosities  of  the  Iditarod  it  is 
because  I  know  of  nothing  except  the  human  mind  that 
is  so  winding,  so  crooked,  so  astonishingly  and  exasper- 
atingly  devious.  Perhaps  the  steamboat  men,  whose 
usually  ample  supply  of  languai;e  is  insufficient  to  do 
justice  to  the  crookedness  of  I'm  Iditarod,  may  find  this 
word  of  help  in  relieving  their  feelings. 

Far  away  as  we  are  yet  from  the  region  of  the  coast, 
this  great  flat  through  v'lich  th>^  Iditarod  coils  and  twists 
partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  tundra  country,  and  the 
river  itself  resembles  a  tundra  stream.  There  is  the  same 
total  absence  of  trees,  the  same  attractive  and  delusive 
grass-land  as  far  as  the  eye  can  see— delusive  because 
so  soon  as  foot  is  set  upon  it  it  is  found  to  be  swamp — 
the  same  low,  even,  sharply  defined  banks  as  though 
the  bed  had  been  artificially  excavated.  A  bright  beauti- 
ful day  of  warm  sunshine,  the  sky  flecked  with  fleecy 
clouds,  the  clear  yellow  water  sparkling,  leaves  a  very 
pleasant  recollection  behind  of  the  lower  Iditarod. 

I  spoke  of  the  sluggishness  of  the  current,  and,  of 
course,  only  a  sluggish  stream  would  follow  such  a  chan- 
nel; a  brisker  one  would  cut  through  many  a  place  where 


!  '■' 


ii 


CONFUSED  NAVIGATION  375 

but  a  few  feet  of  earth  separates  the  outward  curve 
of  one  bend  from  the  inward  curve  of  another.    Coming 
down  Che  river  with  the  bishop  aboard  one  summer  eve- 
ning, r  score  or  so  of  miles  perhaps  from  its  mouth,  the 
n«d  r;f  a  slight  adjustment  of  the  machinery  caused  us  to 
tie  up  for  a  while  to  the  bank.     It  was  daric  and  a  breeze 
rippled  the  surface  of  the  water.    When  the  launch  was 
started  again  the  boy  at  the  wheel  set  her  head  in  a  di- 
rection that  I  was  sure  was  up-stream,  but  that  he  was 
sure   was    down-stream.      No    one    had    taken    special 
notice  of  the  bank  when  we  tied  up  and  the  wind  pre- 
vented observation  of  the  very  slight  current.     A  con- 
troversy followed  in  which  the  four  people  on  board  were 
evenly  divided.    The  bishop  as  owner  and  I  as  master 
of  the  craft  held  opposite  opinions  decidedly  and  per- 
tinaciously.   We  threw  chips  on  the  water,  but  they  gave 
no  sign,  for  the  wind  was  stronger  than  the  current, 
and  the  merry-go-round  of  a  course  we  had  followed  for 
hours  had  driven  all  sense  of  direction  out  of  our  heads; 
nor,  indeed,  would  such  sense  have  helped  in  the  least 
since  the  immediate  direction  of  the  river  is  so  rarely 
the  real.    By  this  time  it  grew  dark,  and  since  the  puzzle 
was  still  unsolved  we  decided  to  tie  up  for  the  night, 
although  we  had  intended  running  to  Anvik  without 
stopping.    The  amusing  part  of  the  incident  is  that  no 
one  save  the  boy  who  rose  early  and  started  the  launch 
before  we  in  the  cabin  were  up,  knew  which  side  had 
been  in  the  right  the  evening  before— and  he  laughingly 
refused  to  tell.     I  have  always  felt  confident,  however, 
that  it  was  the  realisation  of  his  error  that  sealed  his  lips.' 


376 


THE  NEW  ARMADA 


:1  •    1 


In  the  high  water  of  the  early  summer  this  whole 
region  becomes  an  inland  sea,  and  amusing  stories  are 
told  of  the  fleet  of  craft  of  every  conceivable  shape  and 
kind— stern-wheelers,  paJdle-wheelers,  screw-propellers— 
that  "rushed"  in  from  Fairbanks  and  every  Yukon  town 
at  the  opening  of  navigation  in  1910  and  knew  not  whither 
to  steer  when  they  reached  this  wide  expanse  of  water. 
At  length  came  along  a  "company"  steamboat  that  had 
made  the  trip  once  before,  and  the  heterogeneous  flotilla 
fell  in  line  behind. 

I  saw  many  of  those  boats  on  the  Yukon  bound 
for  the  Iditarod  the  summer  of  the   rush  to  the  new 
goldfield— gasolene-boats,  poling-boats,  rowboats,  home- 
made  steamboats  with   prospecting  boilers   and   hoist- 
engines  rudely  installed,  to  be  removed  and  used  for 
mining  when  the  diggings  were  reached.     Full  of  men 
and  household  effects  and  supplies,  sometimes  with  a 
team  of  dogs  and  a  sled  on  deck,  sometimes  with  a  loud- 
mouthed phonograph  playing  popular  airs,  they  passed 
along,  in  hope  and  glee,  to  the  new  Eldorado.     There  is 
a  freshness,  a  vivacity  about  these  stampedes,  whether 
on  the  water  or  over  the  ice,  that  is  exceedingly  attrac- 
tive.    Grizzled  "rough-necks,"  the  veterans  of  a  score 
of  similar  adventures,  plunge  in  once  more  with  all  the 
sanguine  spirit  of  the  young  men  who  accompany  them; 
the  word-of-mouth  reports  from  the  new  diggings  grow 
more  alluring  with  every  repetition;  this  time  success  is 
certain;  the  long-expected  chance  has  come.    And  there 
is  about  these  old-timers  a  capability,  an  ingenuity,  a 
clever  utilisation  of  meagre  resources,  an  elastic  adap- 


!  't| 


It!i 


A   RECENT  STAMPEDE  377 

tation  of  means  to  ends,  and  an  equanimity  of  patient 
endurance  that  arouses  new  surprise  and  admiration  con- 
tmually.  The  sordidness  of  the  underlying  motive  is  lost 
m  admiration  of  the  qualities  it  evokes;  is  lost  in  the  men 
themselves  in  the  sheer  zest  of  new  adventure.  Here 
IS  the  zeal  that  no  length  of  experience  can  dampen;  the 
vision  that  no  past  disappointment  can  dull.  And  they 
float  on,  dogs  barking,  graphophone  shrieking,  tw,i- 
cycle  motors,  that  explode  frequently  but  not  always, 
chugging  their  ragtime,  they  float  on  down  the  river,' 
out  of  sight  round  the  bend,  to  that  region  "over  the 
hdls  and  far  away"  whence  come  the  latest  stories  of 
treasure  hid  in  the  earth. 

But  the  stampede  on  the  first  water  from  other  parts 
of  the  interior  to  the  Iditarod  in  the  summer  of  1910 
was  nothing  to  the  rush  from  the  outside  that  followed 
when  the  ice  had  gone  out  of  Lake  Lebarge  and  the  steam- 
boats ran.    The  magazines  of  the  winter  before  had  just 
discovered    "The    Incalculable    Riches    of   Alaska";    a 
spectacular  shipment  of  gold-dust  had  gone  across  coun- 
try to  Seward  and  had  thence  been  conveyed  with  drums 
and   trumpets  into  Seattle;   the  steamship   companies 
and  the  newspapers  had  worked  hand  in  hand  in  the 
usual  way     So  eager  were  the  people  for  passage  that 
they  crowded  the  boats  long  after  all  accommodation 
was  exhausted.     It   was  said  that  at   one  time   three 
thousand  people  were  on  their  way  between   Seattle 
and    Dawson,    which   was    doubtless    an    exaggeration, 
for  these  rumours  always  fatten  themselves  upon  the 
excitement  they  create,  but  that  number  is  not  too 


r  I 


:  J' 


W) 


378  DISGRUNTLED   PASSENGERS 

great    for    those   who  went    into    the    Iditarod    that 

summer. 

I  was  at  Eagle  when  the  first  through  steamboats 
arrived  and  was  much  amused  at  one  incident.    A  party 
of  men  came  from  one  of  the  boats  with  a  complamt  to 
the  United  States  commissioner.    They  had  paid  first- 
class  passage,  notwithstanding  which  they  were  made  to 
sleep  in  "standees"  (tier  upon  tier)  on  a  barge.     This 
they  were  willing  to  submit  to,  but  since  leaving  Dawson 
the  steamboat  people  had  stabled  horses  between  the 
standees,  and  they  resented  the  presence  of  the  horses 
and  demanded   their  removal.     One  man   said  that   a 
horse's  tail  switched  him  across  the  face  in  the  night  and 
nearly  blinded  him;  another  said  that  a  horse  had  knocked 
down  his  trousers  and  stamped  on  them,  and  he  pro- 
duced the  broken  handle  of  a  pocket-knife  in  evidence. 
But  there  was  no  redress  in  law,  nor  do  I  think  there  was 
need     These  men  would  not  wait,  they  insisted  on  crowd- 
ing a  boat  already  fuU-and  they  had  to  take  things  as 
they  found  them.    No  old-timer  would  have  said  a  word 
about  it.    He  would  probably  have  done  somethmg  to 
relieve  the  situation,  would  have  hit  upon  some  expedi- 
ent to  make  things  more  tolerable,  but  he  would  never 
have  gone  whining  to  a  magistrate  about  a  congestion  of 
which  he  was  himself  the  cause.    There  was  a  good  deal 
more  need  of  horses  in  the  Iditarod  just  then  than  there 
was  of  more  people. 

In  comfort  or  discomfort,  by  one  means  or  another, 
they  reached  their  eagerly  desired  destination,  each  ready 
for  his  share  of  "The  Incalculable  Riches"  aforesaid,  and 


ACCESS  TO  IDITAROD  CITY  37,^ 

that  summer  Iditarod  City  was  the  largest  city  of  Alaska 
and  the  next  winter  it  was  estimated  that  u^warHa 
thousand  men  were  living  on  one  meal  a  d  ,y 

When  perhaps  an  hundred  miles  of  anfractuosities  has 
been  p,,,ed  the  anfractuousness  ceases  and  the  I  Lod 

dver     Th^elf  7'^"'"  """^^  ^'""^^  ^"^  -  -binary 

mg  h,Ils.    The  smgular  tundra  character  of  the  country 

AlaTa'ard'  T'  ^^'".'"".f-"'  ^PP^^-ce  of  inS 
Alaska  and  of  mter.or  Alaska's  rivers  is  resumed  for 
nearly  another  hundred  miles  to  Dikeman 

Th,s  place  was  established  at  the  time  of  the  "rush- 
as  a  general  depot  and  warehouse  point,  for,  save  at  the 
h.ghest  stages  of  water,  this  is  the  head  of  steamboa 

Place  for  the  m.nes  wh.ch  are  yet  eighty  or  ninety  miles 

fate  of  overbuddmg,  so  that  the  banks  are  lined  with 
empty  cabms. 

I  know  of  nothing  which  illustrates  better  the  re 
sourcefulness  and  ingenuity  of  the  white  men  of  Alaskt 
han  the  way  in  which  the  difficulties  of  navigating  h 
Iduarod  between  Dikeman  and  Iditarod  City  were 
overcome  The  river  is  not  really  navigable  at  aH 
any  outs.de"  sense  of  that  term.  It  Is  a  moun  ah 
stream  m  which  swift  shallow  reaches  are  separated  by 
bars  and  nffles  from  deep  pools,  and  in  the  heat  of  summer 

water  and  the  bars  protrude.    At  the  lowest  stage  of 


38o  MAKING  A   RIVER  NAVIGABLE 

water  all  traffic  is  necessarily  intermitted,  but  during 
much  the  greater  part  of  the  season  th ;  boats  ply  back 
and  forth  with  freight  and  passengers. 

Swift,  shallow  water  calls  for  powerful,  light-draught 
boats,  and  I  think  the  development  of  such  craft  was 
probably  carried  further  on  the  upper  Iditarod  than  it 
has  ever  been  anywhere  else;  for  the  reason  that  a  com- 
merce based  upon  the  product  of  rich  gold-mmes  can 
stand  a  greater  expense  of  operation  than  any  other 
except  perhaps  a  commerce  based  upon  the  product  of 
rich  diamond-mines. 

Will  the  output  stand  the  coast  of  operation  ?-that 
is  the  only  question;  if  it  will,  then  however  great  that 
cost  may  be,  in  the  language  of  the  country  there  is  only 
one  thing  to  say,  "Go  to  it !"  Rich  placer  deposits  hke 
those,  say,  of  Bonanza  Creek  in  the  Klondike  would 
stand  the  cost  of  operation  had  all  supplies  to  be  brought 
in  by  aeroplanes  and  dirigible  balloons. 

So  the  "transportation  men"  went  to  it.  They  con- 
structed the  lightest,  shallowest-draught  flat-bottomed 
boats  ever  made,  drawing  but  two  or  three  inches  of 
water,  and  installed  therein  powerful  automobile  engines 
that  turned  stern  paddle-wheels  at  a  high  rate  of  speed, 
and  the  paddle-wheels  did  but  touch  the  surface  of  the 
water  These  boats  pushed  barges  that  carried  the 
freight,  drawing  little  more  with  their  loads  than  the 
boats  drew  with  their  machinery.  By  the  most  skilful 
handling,  by  loading  and  unloading,  by  jockeying  and 
jack-knifing,  mile  by  mile,  the  freights  were  pushed  up 
the  river,  and  sometimes  a  couple  of  horses  were  earned 


ill' 


h" 


w. 


.V-M 


mm  'I 

II I 

"U 


LIGHT-DRAUGHT  DEVICES 


were  w.ng-dammed.  that  what  water  there  was  might 
be  thrust  into  one  channel.  * 

The  scre« -propeller  men  were  put  to  it.  as  well  as 
the  stern-wheel  men.    I  do  not  know  that  th    "knu  kle 
o.nt      etween  shaft  and  propeller  was  invented  o„te 

tl;  ca"  H  7"  "" '  ''''''■  ^y  "^'^  •'-'« ' 

Terv  sh.II  ,  """  "'''"  '■°^«'"8  "P-'-='">  over 
very  shallow  places,  and  the  latter  when  drifting  down- 
stream  over  riffles.  ^         " 

The  Pelican  draws  her  full  sixteen  inches  of  water 
and  her  tunnel  stern  forbids  a  knuckle-joint.  Once 
gomg  up  as  far  as  Dikeman.  she  had  to  turn  back,  since 

tailed  for  ten  days  twenty  miles  below  Iditarod  City 
untd  ram  swelled  the  stream  to  her  draught.  More 
than  once  a  fr.endly  line  from  a  lighter-draught  boarh 

w^     flat"     t  ^  r"'-.'"-     ^"^^  -■'=  '''  '-«  -"  '-rs 
v,th  flat  metal-bound  ends  made  .so  that  we  can  put  on 

the  rubber  boots  and  get  out  in  the  water  and  pry  he^ 
bodily  off  bars  with  them. 

In  the  first  two  or  three  summers  of  her  life  her  poor 
bottom  was  gouged  and  torn  and  scarred  by  gravel  from 
L  ke  Lebarge  to  the  Koyukuk  and  the  Iditarod,  but^ 
late  years  we  do  not  get  aground  so  much. 

from  ^7"!°''  'T"  ''"""^  '^'  *"''  "°'  '°"^h  bottom 
from  the  time  she  was  launched  to  the  time  she  was 
pulled  out;  but  I  have  become  chary  of  talking  abouT 


1 


3H2 


MUSHROOM  GROWTH 


and  really  think  that  I  had  better  not  have  mentioned 
it  at  all.  At  the  opening  of  the  next  season,  with  the 
bishop  and  a  guest  aboan'  I  was  boasting  of  it  and 
pluming  myself  upon  it,  with  the  wheel  in  my  hands, 
running  down  the  broad  Yukon;  and  while  the  vaunts 
were  yet  on  my  lips,  bang  f— she  went  so  hard  upon  a 
sand-bar  that  it  took  an  hour  or  more  to  get  her  off. 
Pride  sometimes  comes  just  before  a  fall,  and  constant 
watchfulness  is  the  price  of  constant  floatage  on  the 
Yukon. 

Iditarod  City  had  one  season  of  feverish  building  and 
ofir  "season  of  fairly  remunerative  usufruct  thereof,  and 
then  it  collapsed.  During  those  two  years  it  was,  I 
think,  the  largest  town  of  interior  Alaska.  Tradesmen 
of  all  kinds  from  Dawson,  from  Fairbanks,  from  Nome, 
from  the  "outside,"  came  hither  with  stocks  of  mer- 
chandise; sawmills  were  set  up,  and  since  local  timber  is 
scarce  and  poor  their  output  was  supplemented  by  large 
lumber  shipments  from  other  places,  and  the  town  sprang 
out  of  mud  lying  upon  ice  (such  is  its  foundation)  in  a 
few  weeks'  time;  chiefly  of  wood  and  tar-paper  with  saw- 
dust for  insulation  from  the  cold.  Two  banks  were  es- 
tablished, and  two  newspapers,  and  pretty  soon  the  in- 
evitable "Chamber  of  Commerce"  was  organised  and  a 
new  full-fledged  mining-camp  town  sprang  to  life.  The 
saloons,  the  gamblers,  and  the  prostitutes  were,  of  course, 
amongst  the  first  arrivals. 

There  was  only  one  creek  of  any  richness— Flal 
Creek,  about  ten  miles  away— and  that  was  not  onlj 
rich  but  shallow,  so  that  gold  was  soon  forthcoming 


I' 


j 

II 


MISSION  EXPERIENCES 


383 


But  a  creek  that  is  rich  and  shallow  is  precisely  the  best 
creek  for  dredging,  and  that  word  had  ominous  sig- 
nificance for  Iditarod  City.  A  little  town  grew  up  at 
the  mouth  of  Flat  Creek,  following  the  usual  course  of 
mining-camps  which  provides  an  immediate  town,  and, 
so  to  speak,  an  ultimate  town;  but  that  Iditarod  City 
might  not  lose  more  than  was  unavoidable,  a  tram-line 
was  constructed  across  the  hills  between  the  two. 

The  next  summer  the  bishop  sent  me  in  to  build  a 
hospital,  and  the  Guggenheims  sent  in  experts  to  report 
on  the  outlook  for  dredging.  Two  nurses  and  a  full 
hospital  equipment  arrived  a  little  later,  and  the  same 
boat  brought  diamond  drills  for  dredge-prospecting.  I 
tramped  the  niggerheads  and  the  muck  from  claim  to 
claim,  from  creek  to  creek  (for  there  were  some  other 
creeks),  week  after  week,  raising  money,  and  the  Gug- 
genheim people  took  options  on  the  whole  of  Flat  Creek, 
and  cross-cut  every  claim  with  the  diamond  drills  in  their 
customary  thorough  way. 

Some  of  my  experiences  that  hot,  mosquito-laden 
summer  were  interesting,  could  they  with  any  face  be 
dragged  into  a  book  about  river  cruises.  Asking  for 
money  is  not  the  pleasantest  work  in  the  world,  even  when 
it  is  to  build  that  necessary  thing — a  hospital;  and  tramp- 
ing through  thick  tenacious  mud,  or  jumping  from  nigger- 
head  to  niggerhead  all  day  long  is  fatiguing.  I  envied 
my  pet  Malamute  "Muk,"  who  inhabited  the  after-deck 
of  the  launch  that  summer  and  several  others,  and  ac- 
companied me  on  my  tramps,  because  his  light  weight 
enabled  him  to  skip  over  bog  that  would  not  carry  me; 


i 


384  BUILDING  A  HOSPITAL 

and  four  legs  are  a  great  advantage  over  two  in  the  mere 
matter  of  locomotion— there  is  no  doubt  about  that. 
Muk  grew  rolling  fat  on  that  excursion,  for  while  I  was 
addressing  the  men  on  a  claim  as  they  ate  their  dinner 
or  supper  (the  only  chance  of  getting  them  all  together) 
the  cooks  would  feed  the  handsome,  ingratiating  little 
beast.  He  had  bones  buried  all  over  Flat  Creek  away 
down  to  Discovery  on  Otter  Creek,  and  was  so  thoroughly 
spoiled  that  when  I  got  back  to  Iditarod  City  I  had  to 
give  him  a  good  thrashing  and  put  him  on  the  cham  for 

a  week. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  undertaking  that  all  my  ad- 
dresses were  not  as  barren  as  the- one  that  I  delivered  to 
the  largest  gang  of  men  on  the  creek.  The  proprietors 
of  the  claim  were  absent,  but  the  foreman  gave  me  per- 
mission to  ask  for  contributions  readily  enough,  and  I 
took  my  stand  between  the  long  tables  and  began  my 
plea  to  the  usual  accompaniment  of  clattering  knives 

and  forks. 

The  reader  can  divine  for  himself  the  general  tenor 
of  the  talk,  which  did  not  vary  much.  Here  in  the  camp 
were  several  thousand  men  engaged  in  hazardous  work 
and  no  place  where  an  injured  or  sick  person  might  be 
taken  care  of.  Last  week  I  had  buried  a  man  killed  by 
the  caving  of  an  open  cut;  at  this  time  there  was  a  man 
with  a  broken  leg  lying  at  a  road-house  for  lack  of  any 
other  place;  the  doctors  in  the  camp  were  hampered  by 
that  lack;  no  man  knew  whether  or  not  he  would  be  the 
next.  The  bishop  had  sent  a  nurse  and  a  complete 
hospital  outfit;  all  we  wanted  from  the  camp  was  enough 


i; 


WASTED  ELOQUENCE  jgj 

money  to  put  up  the  building;    it  was  nor  .  m„ 

bu   I  m.d,  ,1,,  p,„  ..  „„„„    ^, ,  '™P     .  ». 

"O.  .m.„  any  on,-.  p,„ic„|„  „,„,i„      '„'"'"' 
cone™.  f„  ,1,,  „^„  fc„„„„  J  »  S-'J  »•  no 

oi  tne  plea  I  had  made,  and  it  was  only  when  thev  h,^ 
gone  and  the  tables  were  being  cleared  1^1  .^  . 
that  they  were  all  Montenegrins  and  thafnnJ  "'' 

the.   understood   any   En'g|- ^  ^ '0^^;::.?;; 
some  one  who  "listened  with  incomprehenlrand  . 
spect      these  men  hstened  with  the  former  only  if  thev 
may  be  sa.d  to  have  listened  at  all  ^ 

When  my  immediate  chagrin  was  over  I  could  ioin 
heartdy  m  the  laugh  against  myself,  and  7l'Z 
.a™_„.  .Hen  they  returned  were  the  mo:;!;;; 

With  the  help  of  the  women  of  Iditarod  Citv  I  ,„,n 
aged  to  secure  three  thousand  dollars,  and  thaf'suS 

oftered  at  an  advantageous  price,  though  not  to 


386 


SMALLPOX  EPIDEMIC 


complete  the  payment.  Almost  simultaneously  the  drill- 
prospecting  was  finished  (it  is  said  that  fifty  thousand 
dollars  was  spent  upon  it),  and  the  Guggenheim  corpora- 
tion threw  up  all  the  options  it  had  bought  because  the 
ground  did  not  justify  the  very  high  prices  asked. 

And  just  then  came  a  telegram  from  Fort  Yukon 
that  smallpox  had  broken  out  at  the  Rampart  House 
and  a  quarantine  was  established  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Porcupine  and  ray  return  was  urged.  An  earlier  outbreak 
at  Dawson  (whence  it  was  carried  to  the  Rampart  House) 
had  given  me  warning,  and  I  had  telegraphed  to  New 
York  for  vaccine-points  ahd  knew  they  awaited  me  at 
Anvik. 

So,  the  hospital  housed  and  started,  I  left  on  the  Peli- 
can in  a  hurry,  and  we  bumped  and  dragged  our  way 
over  the  bars  to  Dikeman,  for  the  water  was  low,  and 
battered  our  propeller  and  jarred  loose  its  stern  bear- 
ing so  badly  in  getting  through  that  she  rattled  and 
shook  like  an  old  Ford  car  all  the  way  to  Anvik.  Here 
I  picked  up  not  only  the  vaccine-points  but  a  physician 
-  Doctor  Loomis,  on  his  way  outside  from  Tanana— 
and,  impressing  him  into  renewed  service,  cruised  up  the 
eight  hundred  miles  to  Fort  Yukon,  stopping  at  every 
native  camp  along  the  whole  journey  and  vaccinating 
every  one.  Including  those  vaccinated  by  Doctor  Burke 
at  Fort  Yukon  and  the  nurses  at  the  various  mission 
stations,  upwards  of  three  thousand  natives  received 
such  protection  against  smallpox  as  vaccination  affords 
during  this  summer  (191 1). 

But  to  be  done  with  the  chronicle  of  the  Iditarod  as 


;f||'t  ■' 


THE  NEW  RIVAL 


387 


we  leave  it.  The  next  summer,  191 2,  the  Guggenheim 
agents  returned  and  were  able  to  buy  at  their  own 
prices  (which  must  have  been  fair  or  the  owners  would 
not  have  sold)  the  claims  they  had  declined  a  year  be- 
fore. Dredges  were  installed  on  Flat  Creek  and  are  still 
operating;  but  the  Guggenheim  purchase  meant  the  de- 
cay of  Iditarod  City,  for  as  I  have  previously  pointed 
out,  a  dredge  takes  the  place  of  several  hundred  men  so 
far  as  work  is  concerned,  but  not  in  the  upkeep  of  a  town's 
catering  and  merchandising.  Such  business  as  remained 
centred  at  Flat  City,  and  when  last  I  visited  it  Iditarod 
City  was  largely  deserted.  There  was,  indeed,  a  perfect 
exodus  of  tradesmen  the  next  summer,  and  rather  than 
carry  their  stocks  away  again  at  high  freight  rates,  goods 
were  sold  cheaper  than  I  ever  saw  them  sold  in  interior 
Alaska  before  or  since. 


INDEX 


ARriculture,  134,  135,  188,  j86 

Alatna,  342 

Allalaket,  142,  337,  338,  339 

Allen,  Lieutenant,  267,  288, 
3^3.  i^i,  326.  327.  il9, 
341.343.349 

Andreafsky,  200,  201 

Anfractuosites,  374 

Animism,  185 

Anvik,  176,  179,  190 

Anvik  River,  176,  177 

Aphoon,  199 

Archeology,  140,  141,  142,  143, 

Arctic  slope,  349,  350 

Army  posts,  147,  148,  214 

Aurora,  160,  161 

Barnard,  166,  167 
Barnette,  393,  294,  295 
Bates  Rapids,  206,  300,  323 
Bears,  84,  333 
Beaver  City,  no 
Beaver  Creek,  143 
Bell,  John,  221,  243  \ 
Bennett  Lake,  15,  16 
Bergman,  328 
Bering,  3 
Bering  Sea,  201 
Klled  up  by  Yukon,  204 
mud  flats,  204 
scenery,  204 
shores,  203,  205,  207 
storms  in,  209 
Bering's  Straits,  discovery,  207 

delineation,  208 
Bering,  Vitus,  208 
Bettles,  347,  349,  353,  354 
Birch  Creek,  85 
Black  River,  225 
Bompas,  Bishop,  104 
Boncyard,  200,  201,  214 


Boundary  line,   ij,  67,  69,  70,  77, 
101,  234,  236,  239,  240 

Bremner,  John,  350,  351 
289,       Broad  Pass,  290 
330.      Brooks,  Alfred,  281 

Bureau  of  Education,  331,  371 

Caches,  352 
Calico  Bluff,  74 
Campbell,  36,  37 
Campbell  River,  35 
Canada  Jay,  122 
14s      Canadian  Mounted  Police,  28.  C7  to 
Can-Alaska,  243  " 

Carbureter  troubles,  303 
Caribou,  83,  84,  333 
Caribou  Crossing,  16 
Carmack,  45 
Caro,  258 
Cartography,  9,  32,  34,  42,  76,  81, 

102,     tao,     121,    113,    126,    222, 

246,    288,    251,  324,   327,  328, 
346.  362 
Cats,  337 

Chageluk  Slough,  175,  363 
Chageluks,  372 
Chandalar,  109,  247 
Chandalar,  East  Fork,  250 
Chandalar  Lake,  261 
Chapman,  Dr.,  176,  190 
Charley  River,  83 
Chemical  Experiment,  303 
Chena,  292,  293 
Chilkat  Indians,  36 
Chips,  375 
Chrijtian  Lake,  251 
Christian  Iliver,  249,  250 
Circle  City,  90 
Climate,  138,  157,  355 
agricultural  possibilities,  134 
approach  of  spring,  317 
389 


390 


INDEX 


M 


i 


at  St.  Michaelt,  114 

effect  of  winter  cold  on  loil,  107 

in  Muthcrn  itretch  of  Yukon,  174 

low  temperaiure,  94.  <'4i  >'4 

moiiturc,  124 

■pring  and  early  vegctablei,  17 

itormi  in  Bering  Sea,  109 

summer  heat,  326 

thawi  on  river,  107 

warm  weather,  9J 

wet  June,  298 
Oub-houte,  3^  367 
Coal-mines,  32,  132,  171,  271,  286 
Coal-mining,  67,  81 
Coldfoot,  361 
Coleen  River,  233 

Commercial  companies,  36, 100,  loi, 
140, 153,195,200,210,211,212, 
258 
Conway,  2,  3 

Cook,  Captain,  3,  140,  152,  207,  208 
Cook,  Doctor,  327 
Cornell,  Jack,  253,  254,  255,  257 
Coschaket,  267 
Cribbage  boards,  215 
Crime,  155,  156,  317.  359 
Cross  Creek,  194,  195 
Current  phenomena,  291 
Customs  houses,  71 
Cut-oifs,  319 

Dall,  127,  128,  131,  136.  '5!,  '66. 

168,  202,  211,  331,  342 
Dall  River,  127,  130 
Dawson,  51,  218 
Decoy  geese,  318 
De  Long,  212 

Dcnali,  Mt.,  146,  272,  278,  290 
Derabin,  166 
Deserted  City,  133 
Dewey,  Mt.,  10 
Dikeman,  379 

Dogs,  96, 110,  III,  112,  264,  354,  383 
Drift-poles,  305 
Driftwood,  78,  79 
Drowning,  307,  308 
Duncan,  Fr.,  7 
Dyer,  11 


Eagle,  37» 

Eagles,  73,  320,  Jll 

Education,  177,  «*4t  '»7.  309i  JW 

371 
Electric  lighu,  346 
Endicott  Mts.,  34a,  347,  354 
Erosion  phenomena,  150 
Eskimos,  78,  177,  251,  3>9>  340 
appearance,  216 

attire,  21s 

benefit  from  reindeer,  218 

boat  builden,  217 

club>house,  366 

contact  with  whites,  215,  217 

examples  of  man's  supremacy,  217 

food,  195 

graves,  202 

handicraft,  215 

industries,  216 

influence,  184 

navigators,  216 

on  Yukon,  196 

picturesque  people,  318 

reduction  in  numbers,  217 

riparian,  196 

stature,  216 

temperament,  216 

trading,  201 

zone,  195 
Evelyn,  John,  342 
Explorers,  100, 127,350 

Fairbanks,   52,  291,  292,  293,  295, 

296,334 
Farthing,  290 

Fauna,  38,  81, 84, 125, 131,  227,  273, 
315,  3'8,  320,  321,  332,  334.  336 
Fire  making,  341 
Fires,  131 
Fish,  camps,  no,  174,  182, 183 

canneries,  8 

catching,  by  animals,  321 

diet,  341 

dip  nets,  113 

migration,  55 

tales,  322 

wheels,  113 
Five  Finger  Rapids,  33 


INDEX 


*  STO- 


17 
icy,  117 


Flat  City,  387 

Flaxmin  Iiland,  15$ 

Flin,  lit 

Flora,  iji,  J71 
poiionoui  plant,  169 
■mall-sized  timber,  68 
iretf  at  Hnt  .Springi,  170 

Foreit  scrub,  124 

Fort  Gibbon,  139 

Fort  Hamlin,  90 

Fort  Liicum,  214 

Fort  Reliance,  42,  60 

Fort  Selkirk,  35,  37 

Fort  Yukon,  96,  I02,  103,  loj,  108, 

Forty  Mile  Camp,  64,  66 
Foxea,  335 

Fox-farminfi,  181,  281 
Franklin,  Sir  John,  166,  240,  333 
Freight  rates,  33 1 
Fur  trade,  335 

Game,  275,  317,  318 

Geography:  identification  problems, 

local  names,  362 

pedantic  place  names,    ■    ' ; 

persistence  of  place  nam     60 

personal  nomenclature,  .  ,  62 

place  names,  76,  78 

uncharted  region,  250 
Geology,  75 
Glaciers,  12,  39,  40,  263,  272,  275, 

276,  277,  280,313 
Goodpaster  River,  309 
Government:  in  Canadian  territory, 

aid,  331 

and  crime,  155,  253,  251.,  316 

cartography,  126,  132 

ceremonial,  147 

crime  investigation,  118 

dealing  with  Indians,  56 

defects  of,  59 

early  days,  72,  103 

education  policy,  369,  371 

finances,  71 

geological  survey,  76 


39' 


illiteracy,  126 

ineptitude,  284 

land  office  work,  346 

legal  methods,  117 

local,  14s,  163 

military  posts,  72 

military  telegraph,  74 

mortality,  338 

neglect  of  medical  attention,  169 

policy,  190 

prohibition,  359 

railways,  210,  284,  288,  295 

red  tape,  308 

reindeer,  188 

road  building,  310 

school  methods,  369,  370 

subsidy  to  agriculture,  135 

tax-collecting  cynicism,  360 

unpaid  magistracy,  117 
Grant  Creek,  153 
"Greeley,  91,  125 
Guggenheims,  385,  387 
Guide  books,  4 

Haida  Indiana,  369 

Hammond  River,  362 

Harper,  Arthur,  42,  86,  293 

Herbert,  John,  232 

Hogatzakaket  Mts.,  318,  320 

Hogatzatna,  319 

Holy  Cross  Mission,  187,  188,  189, 

198 
Horse-scow,  353 
Horse-sleds,  354 
Horses,  378 

Hospitals,  103,  148,  169,  385 
Hot  Springs,  269 
Hudson's  Bay  Co.,  85,  95,  98,  100, 

222,  234,  236,  241 
Huggins,  Genl.,  327,  328 
Huggins  Island,  327 
Hughes  City,  324,  325 
Hunting,  333 

Ice,  25,  221 

break  up,  247 

travel  on  Tanana,  264 
Iditarod,  163,  373 


yjz 


INDEX 


Idiiirod  City,  3l>>  ]>7 
Ulao,78 

Indiani:    inhaoliio'.  5>   '4'>>  M'l 
■  4],  141.  14? 

archiici'iurc,  188 

bad  repuration,  146 

cannibalUnit  166 

chieftain,  >3>,  >49 

children,  339  ' 

Chriitianity,  137 

coait,  6 

crime,  115,  I16,  118,  164,  155 

dangeri  of  deterioration,  aM 

dcfteneration,  7 

depopulation,  105,  106,  144,  I4S< 

175. 'S9 
deterioration,  56,  13} 
development,  )7a 
Eikimoi,  JJt,  340 
ethnology.  M' 
evolution  of,  I4> 
fish  campa,  1 11 
folk-lore,  315 
food,  96,  178.  331 
fur  trapping,  17a 
future  of,  191,  19' 
gamea,  »l 

government  relief  work,  331 
half-breeda,  133 
hardy  tribe,  3*9 
Hudson's  Bay  Co.,  14" 
hunters,  81 
hunting,  174.  3 '8 
Koyukuk,  166,  168,  315 
language,  126,  l$i 
language  discouraged,  370 
legends,  252 
longevity,  242,  243,  244 
magic,  186 

marriage  with  whites,  108 
massacre  by,  at  Andreafsky,  199 
massacre  by  Nulati  Indiani,  167 
medicine-men,  237,  J52 
migratory  nature,  344 
military  movements,  330 
mixed,  177 
mortality,  189 

native  food,  182 


nomadic  tribe,  14I 

nomenclature,  32, 189 

pilot,  30s 

prohibition,  360 

protected  by  missions,  i«| 

provenance  of,  14a 

racial  difficulties,  89 

raid,  36 

religion,  179,  184,  iSSi  ^ 

rights,  368 

sleep  in  daylight,  97,  98 

statistics,  343 

superiority,  57 

trade,  139 

translations  into  Indian  language, 

104 

uprising,  72 

village  desaibed,  267 

village,  white  man'a  town,  287 

with  white  race,  193 
Innoko  River,  173,  373 
Inside  passage,  I,  a,  s 
Interpreters,  339 

Jack  knifing,  23 
Jackson,  Doctor,  21S 
Jesuiu,  188 
Jette,  Father,  143.  3>4 
John  River,  353 
Johnson,  Doctor,  374 
Journalism,  161 
Juneau,  8 

Kaiyuh,  Mts.,  173 

Slough,  174 
Kaket,  152,  34> 
Kaltag,  171,  172 
Kantishna,  272,  27S 
KazheJm,  184 
Katmai  Mt.,  185,  186 
Kazhlme,  366 
Kennan,  128 
Kerosene,  303 
Khotol,  174 
Kipling,  348,  3S> 
Klondike  Era,  14,  S3.  54,  64,  88 

genesis,  41,  41,  85,  86, 103 

gold  seekers,  46 


INDEX 


393 


ilincrarw^,  49 
littraty  mrmoriali,  4],  44 
newt  of  gold  diiCDVery,  4$ 
output  of  minM,  101 
K(ion  of  (old,  47 
■cdiiion  11  Dawioii,  jj 
•hipping,  II) 
■tampcde,  48 

Klondike  River,  jo 

Knuckle  Joint,  381 

Kobuki,  339,  340,  354 

Kokerinet,  156,  158 

Kornutna,  316 

Kotzebue,  IS4 

Kotzebue  Sound,  168 

Koyukuk,  99,  165,  361, 

Koyukuk,  Camp,  355,  358 
Korkt,  354 
Mt.,  313 

Kuailvak  Mt.,  198 

Kuikokwim,  155 

Kuikokwim  River,  19J 

Kwikpak,  99 


Lakei,  113,  124 

Lake  Unknown,  250 

Lebarge  Lake,  24,  27 

Lewii  Landing,  16] 

Lining  up,  306 

Liquor  tralBc,  56,  103,  115,  145, 

'92,    193.   Ill,   212,   259, 

290,  358,  360 
Livengood,  280 
Log  Jam,  280 
London,  Jack,  44 
Longitude,  239,  240 
Lookout  Mt.,  349 
Lowden,  163 
Lynxei,  335 


Mackenzie,  77 
Malemutes,  329,  340 
Mammoth  remains,  154 
Marshall,  197 
Mastodon  Creek,  86 
Maya,  Alfred,  153 


168, 
268, 


McDonald,  8;,  104 
McKinley  Fork,  276 
McQuestin,  62 
Meali,  385 

4eaney,  Fiofoior,  4 
Measles,  189 

Medical  missioni,  148,  189,  190 
Medicine-men,  185,  i85,  237,  jji 
Meloiikaket,  157,  160,  161 
Meloiitna,  157 
Mensuration,  311,  319 
Meridian,  141,  239 
M'Jnight  Sun,  97 
Mike  Hess,  132 
Minchumina  Lake,  273 
Mining,  73,  83,  357 

agriculture,  135 

camps,  197.  295,  358,  361,  38s 

camps  deserted,  273,  274 

camps'  growth,  382 

copper,  18 

geology,  259 

gold.  30,  280,  397,  298,  350,  383, 
387 

life,  87 

life,  a  luxurious  hotel,  270 

mechanical,  53 

placer.  63,  65,  297 

placer,  at  Ruby,  162 

placer,  conditions.  356 

placer,    transportation    problemi, 

380 
pro«pecting.  294 
prospectors'  dangers.  253 
quartz.  8,  259.  260 
shifting  population,  262 
temporary  prosperity,  43 
town  life,  in  romance,  44 
towns.  13.  51.  162 
towns,  decayed,  88,  133 
Minto,  283.  284 

Lake.  280 
Missionaries.  127 

Missions.  16,  37.  89.  127.  176,  206, 
237.238,  251,  286,  310,  329,  331, 
339.  383 
Anglican.  138 
policy  with  natives,  199 


394 


INDEX 


Roman  Catholic,  156, 188, 189, 190 

Runian,  195,  196 
Mohawks,  361 
Moosehide,  SS 
Mosquitoes,  95,  97>  "S,  183,  >I4> 

257.  365 
Motor  boats,  223 

engines,  228,  301,  303 

boat,  Hfe  on  a,  230 
Mountain,  Bishop,  164 
Mountain,  scenery,  11, 129,  130,  343, 
178,  290,  319,  349,  350 

sheep,  83 

snow,  77 

village,  169,  206 
Mouse  Point,  Ij; 
Mt.  McKinley,  c/.  Denali 
Muir  Glacier,  12 
Muir,  John,  12 
Muldoon  Glacier,  276,  277 
Murray,  9S,  99,  240 

Nahoni,  24^,  246 

Lakes,  80 
Nansen,  150,  229 
Narratives,  exploration    in    Alaska, 

330. 
Nation,  81 
National  Park,  279 
Navigation,  23,  25,  305,  306,  312, 
3>4,  347.  375.  380,  381,  382 

accidents  of,  231 

dangers,  246,  270 

sluggish,  373 
Nenana,  285,  286,  289,  290 
Nesseltode,  loi 
New  Rampart  House,  242 
Nolan,  362 

Nordenskiold  River,  32,  149,  !$! 
North  American  Trading  and  Trans- 
portation Company,  213 
Norton  Sound,  207,  208 
Norway,  192 
Nowikaket,  ijs,  161 
Nu-cha-la-woy-ya,  140 
Nuclayette,  351 
Nulato,  16;,  169 

massacre,  [67,  352 


Nushagak,  oldest  Russian  post,  211 

Ogilvie,  16,  17,  41,  45,  68,  69 

O.  Henry,  62,  385 

Old  Rampart  House,  236 

Ophir,  373 

Owls,  337,  338 

Ox  Bows,  373 

Peary,  346 

Pelican,  17,  157,  191.  203,  222,  228, 
229, 230,  242,  24s,  265, 266,  281, 
286,  298, 299,  301,  302, 304, 305, 
306,  322,  323,  329 

Pell  River,  35 

Photography,  282,  283 

Picturesque  scenery,  136 

Pike-poles,  304 
,  Pilot  Station,  198 

Pimute  Portage,  193 

Pioneer  Life,  116,  123,  315,  356,  368, 
384 

Pioneers,  12,  14,  24,  42,  48,  49,  63, 
221,  267,  324,  334,  376 

Pneumatic  cushions,  22S 

Point-no-Point,  132 

Poling  boat,  275 

Porcupine,  80,  109,  334 
its  upper  course,  245 
narrow  channels,  246 

Pribilof  Islands,  153 

Primus  stove,  230 

Prospectors,  257,  293,  294 

Rabbits,  332,  333,  335,  336,  33* 
Railways,  9, 15, 18,  25,  262,  271,  27% 

28s,  287,  296 
Rainbow,  159 
Rampart  City,  133 
Ramparts,  131,  138 

of  the  Porcupine,  233,  234 
Raymond,  Capuin,  100 
Red  Mountain,  325 
Reindeer,  188 
Restaurants,  20,  21 
Rex  Beach,  134 
River  John,  350 
Road  building,  310 


INDEX 


Road  house,  82,  S3 

Roads,  259 

Roman  Catholic  Church.  206.     CJ. 

Missions 
Romanoff  Point,  207 
Rotation  of  earth,  150 
Rowe,  Bishop,  87,  88 
Rowikaket,  161 
Roy  River,  130,  132 
Ruby,  139.  161,  162,  163 
Russian  Alaska,  98.  loi,  156,  168, 
>94.  I95»  196.  199 

St.- John-in-the- Wilderness,  329 
St.  Michael,  antiquities,  211 
attempt  to  eliminate,  210 
canal  to  bay,  209 
climate  at,  214 

described  by  De  Long  in  1879,  212 
deserted  plants  at,  214 
distance  from  Yukon  on  bar,  207 
foundation,  211 
harbor  conditions,  209 
its  early  settlers,  212 
Klondike  era,  213 
route  from  fCaltag,  172 
Salchaket,  308 
Salmon,  182,  183 
diet,  178 
fishing,  227 

migration,  179,  180,  181 
Sand-bars,  247 
Schwatka,  15,  17,  31,  32,  34,  35,  67, 

68,  72.  153 
Service  R,  348 
Sheep  Creek,  77 
Sheep  hunting,  38 
Shumogin  Island,  141 
Siberian  rivers,  149 
Signal  Corps,  137 
Sim  Vincent,  237 
Skagway,  9,  13 
Sleds,  48 

Sloughs,  114,  292,  298,  299,  334,  364 
Small-pox  epidemic,  386 
Smudge,  365 
Snow,  impressions,  336 
water,  275,  276 


39S 


Soap,  366 

South  Fork  of  Koyukuk,  343 
Stampede,  days,  134,  328 
economics,  387 
food,  334 
Kantishna,  273 
Stampedes,  294,  344.  345,  375,  377. 

378 
Standees,  387 
Stankus,  92 
Starter,  20 

Steamboats,  22,  29,  92, 100,  103,  136, 
241,258,307,344,345,347,35, 
378,  380 
abandoned,  214 
and  driftwood,  78 
disused,  200 
stranded,  202 
wrecked,  201 
Stefansson,  349 
Stephen's  Village,  125,  126 
Stone  Axe,  140,  143 
Stoney,  Lieutenant,  313 
Summer  travel,  253 
Summers,  97 
Surveys,  69,  76,  80,  250 
Suspension  Bridge,  285 
Sweat  bath,  366 

Table  d'hote,  20 

Tanana,  139,  140, 143. 144,  ,45,  ^^^ 
.    '47.  149.  312,313 
importance  commercially,  262 
need  of  sailing  marks,  270 
swift  stream,  263,  264 
water,  effect  on  motor  engines,  265 

Tanana  Crossing,  306,  310,  311 

Telegraph  lines,  172,  173.  382 

Teslin  River,  30 

Thermometers,  284,  332,  333 
1  hirty  Mde  River,  28 

Thunder-storm,  157 

Tips,  21 

Tobacco,  244 

Tolovana,  279,  280,  281 

Totems,  5 

Tozitna,  151 

Trade,  102 


396 


INDEX 


m 


pi 


Trading  companies,  37 

Traffic  routes,  I,  2, 14,  15,  iS,  25,  27, 
32,  49,  56,  108,  112,  117,  136, 
139,  140,  Mt,  147.  <7»»  19J.  "o> 
213,  223,  242.  251.  iS3»  254. 255, 
259,  273,  280,  286,  309, 3»7.3a6» 
331.  340,  353.  379 

Trondeg  River,  45 

Tundra,  349 

Turner,  J.  H.,  120,  236,  239 

Unalaklik,  172,  215 

Vancouver,  3,  4,  9 

Victor,  story  of,  117,  119 

Victor's  Place,  114 

Vital  statistics,  105 

Volcanoes,  34,  35,  x86  ' 

Wasky,  Frank,  206 
Weather  bureau,  284 
Western  Union  survey,  1 27,  1 28 
White  Horse,  19 
White  River,  41 
Wireless  stations,  173 
Wolves,  84,  337.  338 
Wood  cutting,  271 

Yanert,  William,  120,  I2I,  123 
Young  Eagle  Mountain,  342 
Yukon,  agriculture  on,  191  / 

bank-saving  device,  108 

boneyard,  153 

channel,  92 

confluence,  38,  40 

confluence  with  Koyukuk,  164, 165 

confluence  with  Porcupine,  221 

confluence  with  Tanana,  138,  139, 

Crossing,  32 

current,  91 

current  deviation,  149,  150^  151 

dangers  of  navigation,  114 

deaths  by  drowning,  27 

decline  in  river  tonnage,  172 

delta  country,  198 

drainage  area,  129 

drainage  basin,  348 


erosion,  106,  107,  205 

Eskimos,  196 

exploration,  137 

father  of  the,  62 

fish  migration  on,  55 

Flats,  90,  93,  94,  95.  96,  [09>  121, 

249 
Flau  scenery,  119 
Flats  map,  123 
flora,  174 
forest-fires,  131 
freight  navigation,  172 
geography  in  Flats,  123 
geology,  75 
high  water,  79 
ice  in,  25,  94 
ice  jamming,  83 

increased  stream  after  Tanana  con- 
fluence, 149 
inundation,  82 
islands,  32 
jack  knifing,  23 
Klondike  era,  201 
Koyukok  Flats  Keneiy;  164 
length  of,  17 
loneliness,  137,  T75 
mining  on  bars,  65 
monotonous  scenery,  60 
mountain  scenery,  22,  130 
mouths,  199,  205,  207 
mudd}',  180 

navigable  near  source,  16 
navigation,  29 
pilots,  92 
police  patrol,  58 
rabbits  on,  334 
Rampart  section,  77,  129 
River  islands,  32 

gelation  of  shores,  107 

rapids,  33,  136 

sand-bars,  382 

scenery,  39 

slough,  364 

source,  30 

tributari^  248 

tributaries  explored,  323 

unknown  re^on,  80 
southern  stretch,  174 


INDEX 


,  121, 


spring,  26 

stretch   Rowikaket  and   Mdoza- 

Kaket,  161 
summer,  94 
thunder-storm  on,  ic8 
timber,  68 


397 


unknown,  99 
unpopulated  region,  173 
width,  196 
winter,  94 

Zagoskin,  136,  137 


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